In physical optics, the Cotton–Mouton effect is the

birefringence Birefringence is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are said to be birefringent (or birefractive). The birefrin ...

in a liquid in the presence of a constant transverse

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and t ...

. It is a similar but stronger effect than the Voigt effect (in which the medium is a gas instead of a liquid). The electric analog is the

Kerr effect The Kerr effect, also called the quadratic electro-optic (QEO) effect, is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an applied electric field. The Kerr effect is distinct from the Pockels effect in that the induced index cha ...

. It was discovered in 1905 by

Aimé Cotton Aimé Auguste Cotton (9 October 1869 – 16 April 1951) was a French physicist known for his studies of the interaction of light with chiral molecules. In the absorption bands of these molecules, he discovered large values of optical rotator ...

and Henri Mouton, working in collaboration and publishing in . When a linearly polarized wave propagates perpendicularly to a magnetic field (e.g. in a magnetized plasma), it can become elliptized. Because a linearly polarized wave is some combination of in-phase X and O modes, and because X and O waves propagate with different phase velocities, there is elliptization of the emerging beam. As the waves propagate, the phase difference (δ) between E_X and E_O increases.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton-Mouton effect Magneto-optic effects Liquids

See also

References