Observation of Magnetoelectric Jones Birefringence

Abstract

In 1948, Jones showed that uniaxial media can in general show four different fundamental optical phenomena, each of which can appear in refraction and absorption. Three of these are well established: isotropic refraction and absorption, linear birefringence and dichroism, and circular birefringence and dichroism. The fourth effect, predicted by Jones, has remained unobserved so far. In this Letter, we report the first experimental observation of this missing fourth, so-called Jones effect, as an additional, tilted linear birefringence. In our experiments, this effect was induced in liquids by parallel external magnetic and electric fields perpendicular to the propagation direction.

A density functional theory study of magneto-electric Jones birefringence of noble gases, furan homologues, and mono-substituted benzenes

“…yield η of the order of the fine structure constant (vide infra for a note on these results). For molecules, in line with experiment, 66 the values of η are much smaller than α fs . Here, we resort to the FOM, as defined above, and we look for systems with high values of the FOM.…”

“…In Table I, the ratio k J λ/α, relative to Helium, and employed here as the Figure of Merit (FOM) is reported. In earlier work, 66 the ratio…”

“…65 Experimental verification of the predictions of Jones dates the beginning of this century, and is due to one of the present authors and his group. [66][67][68][69][70] Rikken and Roth 66 have measured Jones birefringence in liquid samples, obtaining upper limits to the expected birefringence for some of the systems analyzed in the study. The results of their measurement have been compared with computational estimates in Ref.…”

Magnetoelectric Jones Dichroism in Atoms

“…In addition, Jones effects are predicted to be significantly smaller than the usual birefringence and dichroism in most media. Consequently, magnetoelectric Jones birefringence has been observed only recently in molecular liquids under extreme experimental conditions [1,2].…”

Highly sensitive frequency metrology for optical anisotropy measurements

“…In addition to the directional anisotropy we have already mentioned, our apparatus also allows us to measure for the first time the Jones magneto-electric birefringence in gases [28,29]. and counterclockwise (ccw) directions; the PR cw and PR ccw (resp.…”