Photo-elastic constants of sodium chlorate

Summary

Sodium chlorate is the first crystal belonging to the tetrahedrite class (T) of the cubic system for which photoelastic constants have been measured. Since the crystal exhibits optical activity and no birefringence in the absence of stress, special techniques have to be adopted for measuring the birefringence introduced by stress. This has been done by the use of a petrological microscope in conjunction with the stressing apparatus and measuring the ellipticity and other characteristics of the light transmitted by the crystal. A particularly simple method is to use the “elliptic analyser”. Since the crystal does not possess four-fold axes, the relative orientation of the X- Y- and Z-axes was determined by means of X-rays. From observations on crystals compressed along [100], [110] and [111] directions,q ₁₁–q ₁₂,q ₁₁–q ₁₃ andq ₄₄ were evaluated. All the four constants were independently obtained by combining these with polarisation measurements of light diffracted by ultrasonic waves in the crystal. The values are:q ₁₁=1·48,q ₁₂=3·88,q ₁₃=2·89,q ₄₄=−1·58×10⁻¹³ cm.² dyne⁻¹;p ₁₁=0·173,p ₁₂=0·258,p ₁₃=0·223,p ₄₄=−0·0187.q ₁₂ andq ₁₃ are different as is to be expected from Bhagavantam’s theory for crystal classes T and T _h . For stress along X-axis, the values of birefringence for observation along the Y- and Z- axes differ by as much as 70%, which is the largest observed so far for a cubic crystal.