A circular version of this phenomenon occurs in magnetized ISM and results in a rotation proportional to the integrated electron density.
A circular version of this phenomenon occurs in magnetized ISM and results in a rotation proportional to the integrated electron density. Systems that exhibit this effect can be modeled by the locus of all electric field vectors that produce the same energy density, a shape known as the Fresnel ellipsoid. An asymmetric electric susceptibility tensor is necessary for a crystal to exhibit this behavior; such crystals normally possess uniaxial or biaxial structures, but it can happen in crystals with other types of structures under the application of an external field, as in the Cotton-Moulton, Pockels, and Kerr effects. Quarter-wave plates take advantage of this property to produce circularly polarized light from unpolarized or linearly polarized light. For 10 points, name this anisotropic behavior in which different axes of a material possess different indices of refraction.
A circular version of this phenomenon occurs in magnetized ISM and results in a rotation proportional to the integrated electron density.
birefringence [or double refraction, prompt on optical anisotropy or optical activity]