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Rotatory Power and Optical Activity

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Symmetry and Physical Properties of Crystals

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Abstract

Going through some crystals rotates the linear polarization of incident radiation. This phenomenon, known as rotatory power or circular birefringence, is described by a difference in refractive index for right- and left-hand circular polarization. It is interpreted through the gyrotropy tensor, related to the space dependence of the permittivity tensor. The investigation of this tensor makes it possible to determine what point groups a crystal must belong to in order to feature this property.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, case 115, 4 place Jussieu, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France

    Cécile Malgrange

  2. Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Bâtiment Condorcet, case 7021, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Paris Cedex, France

    Christian Ricolleau

  3. Grenoble-INP et Institut Néel du CNRS, B.P. 166, Université Grenoble-Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Michel Schlenker

Authors
  1. Cécile Malgrange
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  2. Christian Ricolleau
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  3. Michel Schlenker
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Correspondence to Cécile Malgrange .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Malgrange, C., Ricolleau, C., Schlenker, M. (2014). Rotatory Power and Optical Activity. In: Symmetry and Physical Properties of Crystals. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8993-6_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8993-6_18

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8992-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8993-6

  • eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)

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