Faraday and Pockels Eect

Benjamin Seeber Thierry Fredrich 9th march 09

The Faraday and the Pockels effect has been observed since physicist were able to control electric and magnetic elds. But until the modern Quantum Mechanics were established these effect were not understood. The electric and the magnetic elds inuences the optical properties of matter. Pockels observed this for the electric eld and Faraday analogous for the magnetic eld. On this labor-day we did two experiments to become familiar with these effects.

Contents
1 Part A Pockels-Eect
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Physics . . Tasks . . . Processing . Conclusions Physics . . Tasks . . . Processing . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 8 8 10

2 Part B Faraday-Eect

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11 12 12 15

3 Summarizing

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1 Part A Pockels-Eect
The electrooptic effect or the so called Pockels Effect contributes to the fact that dielectric constant is only an approximation. More exactly is an tensor and dened by:

D E

(1)

I.e. the displacement eld D is not (!!!) a linear function of the electric eld. So as usual we describe it with its series expansion: D = aE + bE 2 + cE 3 + (2)

were a, b and c are some constants. We assume for our puspose that the higher terms have negligible contribution. So becomes:

dD = a + 2bE + 3cE 2 + dE

(3)

If we know remember that the refraction index n is dened by n = r r were r and r are the electric and magnetic constants of the material, it is obvious that well get some minor changes in n by some changes in E. Thats what we call electrooptic effect. Especially for the Pockels effect it is the linear term in (3) which is in involved.

1.1 Physics
1.1.1 Bi-refraction and the Index ellipsoid
The propagation of light in matter could either happen with the same velocity in all direction or with different speed for each direction. In the rst case we call the medium isotropic and in the second anisotropic. In general the isotropic are only the ones with cubic latice and anisotropic all the others. In the anisotropic case the propagation depends on the polarization and the direction of the k. To describe velocity in dependence of the direction and the polarization it is handy to introduce the index ellipsoid as Fresnel did. Take a right handed coordinate system with Axis X1, X2, X3 and at least one parallel to a latice axis so the index ellipsoid is:
2 2 2 X3 X1 X2 2 2 2 2 2 2 + + = c2 (X1 v1 + X2 v2 + X3 v3 ) = 1 2 2 n2 n n 1 2 3

(4)

vi velocity in direction i ni refraction index for direction i For instance: are we interested in the two perpendicular oscillating linear polarized components of an nonpolarized beam of light that goes in direction OP than we just have to put this vector in the ellipsoid and check out the perpendicular plain through the origin which is intersecting in an ellipse. The two major-axis of this ellipse are pointing in the direction parallel to the linear polarized parts of the wave and their length is the magnitude of the corresponding refraction

Figure 1: Visualizing of the described example [Her77] indexes n and n. It is possible to derive the formula (4) exactly from the Maxwell- Equations (see [Wik09a]. For an isotropic crystal the dielectric displacement is given by D = 0 r E (5)

For the anisotropic case equation (5) has to be replaced by an tensor- equation because of the direction dependence: Di = 0 i j E j (6) Equation (6) and the Maxwell- Equations leads to the fact that there are two waves with different velocities in the same direction. These waves are perpendicular to each other and linear polarized as describe for the index ellipsoid.

1.1.2 Piezoelectric- and reverse piezoelectric eect

Piezoelectric is the ability of some materials (notably crystals and certain ceramics, including bone) to generate an electric potential in response to applied mechanical stress. This may take the form of a separation of electric charge across the crystal lattice. If the material is not shortcircuited, the applied charge induces a voltage across the material. The piezoelectric effect is reversible in that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect (the production of electricity when stress is applied) also exhibit the reverse piezoelectric effect (the production of stress and/or strain when an electric eld is applied). For example, the KD+ P crystal used in our experiment.

1.1.3 Electrooptic eect

Up to know we didnt consider the constrains which does or doesnt apply to the latice. We have two cases to distinguish:

zero strain This is the electrooptic effect you would mesassure if the crystal has no possibility
to morph. Also called primitive electrooptic effect. As every school-boy knows this is not the realistic case because we are no able to build device which stops the lattice deforming.

zero stress The effect which occurs according to the reverse piezoelectric effect are the secondary electrooptic ones. Of course is what we get in general a mixture of both cases i.e. something like zi j = zi j + pik d jk (7)

were the zi j is the contribution of the primary effect and the pik d jk is a mixed tensor (not in the mathematical sense) from the electrooptic and elastooptic effect. To avoid these mix terms we apply an alternating electrical eld. Its frequency is faster than the reaction time of the crystal so we mustnt care about the secondary effects. Using all the symmetries of our KD+ P cystall and neglecting the stress (kl = 0) it can be shown (see [Her77]) that the tensor reduces to the following form: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 zi j = (8) 0 z41 0 0 z41 0 0 0 z63

1.1.4 Impact of the electric eld to the index ellipsoid

To achieve more generality well write equation (4) also as an tensor Bi j xi x j = 1 with: Bi j = 1 Ei = 0 i j Dj (9)

The derivation of the electric eld is involved in equation (9). It is clear by this formula that change of E inuences orientation and dimension of the ellipsoid. These changes are described by:

Bi j = zi jk Ek + i jkl kl

(10)

were zi jk as described in 1.1.3 and i jkl kl contributes to the photoelastic effect which is the change of the fraction index during stress. In this case kl is the common stress tensor in diagonalized form. Therefor we nally end up with the formula for an ellipsoid in an arbitrary electric eld:
i, j=1

(Bi j + Bi j )xi x j = 1
1
3

(11)

or again with neglecting the stress

i, j=1

( n2

ij

+ zi jk Ek )xi x j = 1
k=1

(12)

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the Pockelscell [Her77] An mathematically computation (see [Her77]) with this formula, the fact that the crystall is quadratic in shape and U = U d shows that z63 =

d 2 l n3 1 U

(13)

: d l n1 U

wavelength of the light width of the crystall length of the crystall refraction index of the centered direction current which is needed to get a phase shift of

1.2 Tasks
According to our instruction we do the following: adjust the setup and the Pockelscell measuring U /2 in two diffrent ways computation of z63

1.3 Processing
The setup was completely installed on a xed plate as seen on the picture.

Figure 3: schematic diagram of the experiment [Her77] We put on our glasses and adjusted the laser beam to focus the detector. After getting familiar with the aperture we tried some settings on the Oscilloscope to get a focused screen. And then started our measurements according to the manual.

1.3.1 Measurements
At rst we switched to the sawtooth generator an adjusted the following picture on the Oscilloscope. To get more accuracy the peak to peak method is used.The results are: amplitude of sawtooth As half period of sawtooth T1/2 amplitude of sine Asin half period of sin 1/2 scale units (4.70.1) SCAL (2.80.1) SCAL (3.10.1) SCAL (3.10.1) SCAL scale value 1 SCAL=1V 1 SCAL=5ms 1 SCAL=500mV 1 SCAL=2ms absolute value (4.70.1) Volt (140.5) ms (1.550.05) Volt (6.20.2) ms

Figure 4: Screenshot of the oscilloscope

1.3.2 Computations
We compute now the U/2 on two different ways:

One way We know that the sawtooth takes 14 ms from 500V to 0V and the period of the sine is also known. So that we can compute:
U/2 = 500V 500 V 1/2 = 6.2 ms = 221.43 V T1/2 14 ms (14)

If we assume the sawtooth to be without error we get to as error estimation: SU/2 = ( T1 /2 ST1/2 )2 + ( 1 /2 S1/2 )2
/2 /2

500V 1/2 T12 /2

V 2 ST1/2 )2 + ( 500 1 S1/2 )

/2

.2ms 0.5ms 2 V 0.2ms 2 ( 500V (6 ) + ( 50014 ) ms 14ms)2

= 10.66V

With formula (13) we can compute the electrooptic coefcient. Here we are assuming that all the error of the given constants are small compared to our measurement of U/2 . z63 = SU/2 d and S = z63 z 63 U/2 U/2 L n3 1 (15)

with constants: L = 10.6 102 m n1 = 1.5 = 6328 1010 m d = 3.5 103 m So we get: z63 = (27.96 1.35) 1012 m V

The other way Taking the mean of our 20 measurements which you can see in the appendix
the error for a single measurement we get via error propagation we get U/2 =250.97. Knowing the error for U/2 to be 5/ 20V 0.5V . Again we compute the electrooptic coefcient with formula (15). Here the result is: z63 = (24.67 0.05) 1012 m V

1.4 Conclusions
We have two results:

z63 = (27.96 1.35) 1012 and z63 = (24.67 0.05) 1012

m V m V

Because of the so different errors it make no sense to add this results up to one. If you do youll get nearly exact the second result because it has a so little error. Maybe we under- or in case of the second overestimated the errors of the oscilloscope. An other source of errors could be that we neglect changes of temperature which the laserbeam will cause in the crystall. Also the optical path is not 100% symmetric so we get some optical errors such as aberrations and astigmatism. Nevertheless matches our rst result literature value of Kleen/Mller1 in a 2 error range.

1 26.4 1012 Volt m

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2 Part B Faraday-Eect
Already 1846 M. Faraday observed that a magnetic eld inuences the propagation of light in an isotropic medium. This is a kind of induced bi-refraction of circular polarization what is named the Faraday-effect. If you put a lucent isotropic material in a strong magnetic eld and let a beam of light travel along the magnetic ux lines than its oscillating plane will be turned. The rotation depends on the direction of the applied eld. Therefor the angel must be proportional to the rst potency (or at least a odd potency) of the eld. Its is also naturally that the angel depends on the length of the material. If we take this two considerations into account we get following law:

=V l H

(16)

The constant V is called the Verdetconstant and depends not on the eld and on the thickness l. It only depends on the wavelength of the used light. The aim of this experiment is to verify this law.

2.1 Physics
You can describe the magnetrotation by the circular bi-refraction. The linear polarized beam can be expanded in two contranary circular polarized waves. Each of those has a different refraction index and therefore a different propagation speed in the glass. The general case is that the one which goes along the direction of the current in the loop has the higher velocity. A linear wave in the propagation in z direction in some matter can be describe by their two components in the x-y plane:
z x F cos( z) cos(w(t v )) = z y F sin( z) cos(w(t v ))

(17)

In which w is the angular velocity, v the speed of propagation and the angel which the polarization is turned per length unit. (18) Now we substitute to get the equation for circular polarized light with: w w = v+ v w w = + v v (19) (20)

Adding (19) and (20) gives us and expression for in dependence of the propagation speed which we can assign. w w 2 = (21) v v+

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According to our former formula we have know a expression for turning the polarization by on the distance l: wl 1 1 wl = l = ( )= (n n+ ) (22) 2 v v+ 2c By the approximation that <<
w v

we get a nicer form: v = v

v w

(23)

In a semiclassical manner you can describe the difference in the propagation with the fact that the atoms are exited to precessing around their internuclear axis if an magnetic eld is applied. This Theory was established by Lamor.

2.2 Tasks
According to our instruction we do now the following: Measure the rotation of the plane of polarization from a Na-light in dependence of the current applied to the solenoid. Same measurement with inverted current Visualizing the results Compute the magnetic eld of the solenoid as function of the coordinate axis Compare it to H = NIL1
Min Compute the Verdetconstant with the value of the manufacturer [0, 05 Oe xcm ]

Determine the angle between the two polarization directions of the polarimeter

2.3 Processing
At rst we started the water cooling system of the solenoid. We need a constant temperature for our observations to neglect effects of warming. Then we plugged in the Na-light and waited a few minutes until it was bright enough to see something in the telescope.

2.3.1 Measurements
One looked through the telescope and the other changed the current and wrote down the value of the current on the display and the degrees the other read out. You see this tabell in the appendix. Here we just show the plotted values the ones for the positive as well as the ones for the negative current.

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Figure 5: Look through the telescope (from our mobile phone)

faraday.csv
angle of rotation[] 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -6

2 / ndf 1.13 / 19 p0 0.4471 0.05467 p1 -2.602 0.01807

-4

-2

6 current[A]

Figure 6: Fit of the measured values

2.3.2 Computations Compute and compare the magnetic elds To compute the Verdet constat it is necessary to know the magnetic eld as function of the position. It is not!!! sufcient to use the approximation of an innite solenoid. It is a simple exercise to calculate the eld with the Biot-Savart law. It is:
dH = 1/4 I dl sin( ) r2 (24)

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The integration can be seen in [Her77]. x2 + NI H (z) = (L z) lg 2 L(x2 x1 ) x +

1

2 (L z)2 + x2 2 (L z)2 + x1

+ z lg

x2 + x1 +

2 z2 + x2
2 z2 + x1

(25)

Notice that this formula is linear in I! length of the solenoid: total number of coil diameter in 2x1 diameter out 2x2 175mm 3600 20mm 150mm

Looking for the eld in the center and applying 1A we plug these values in the formula and get H (L/2) = 8212A/m In discrepancy to the approximated formula for an innite solenoid: H (L/2) = const . = NI = 20571A/m L

You see the difference so we have to use the exact form.

Rotation of the plane of polarization To get rotation angle we have to integrate again:
d = V H (z) dz = V
L+l 2 Ll 2

H (z) dz

Again we just give the result for the dimension of your solenoid. As you can imagine the exact derivation is given in [Her77]. It is = V I 2556 (26) If you solve the upper equation to V you get a short formula to calculate V. V=

I 2556

(27)

From our data follows that we get a rotation of 26.4 for 10 Ampere. V= 26.45 Degree = 1.035 103 10A 2556 Ampere (28)

The manufacture reference for the Schwertint is given in an other unit so we have to change: 1A 1Degree = = 60 Min
1 Oe m 79.59 1 Oe cm 100 79.59

1.2564Oe cm

V = 1.035 103

60Min Min = 0.0494 1.2564 Oe cm Oe cm

(29)

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2.4 Conclusions
In a rst part we calculated the magnetic eld in the approximation of an innite solenoid and a nite solenoid. Because of the dimensions of our experiment we saw that the approximated formula differs too much from the exact one. Hence you used the exact formula for the calculation of the Verdet constant in the second part. Because we did just one series of measurement we skip the error calculation because it is not a representative sample.

3 Summarizing
In the rst part we computed the matrixelement z63 to m z63 = (27.96 1.35) 1012 . V which matches the result of Kleen/Mller in two standard deviation.

In the second part we determine the Verdet constant of a Schwertint to V = 0.0494 Min . Oe cm

Min The manufacturer reference for the Verdet constant of a Schwertint is 0.05 Oe cm according to [Her77]. Because we did no error estimation for this result we can only say the same order of magnitude. The manufacture took not in account that the constant depends on the wavelength. Maybe they used an other one and thats the reason of the difference!

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List of Figures
1 2 3 4 5 6 Visualizing of the described example [Her77] . . . . Schematic diagram of the Pockelscell [Her77] . . . . schematic diagram of the experiment [Her77] . . . . Screenshot of the oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . Look through the telescope (from our mobile phone) Fit of the measured values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7 8 9 13 13

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References
[Her77] Berhard Herrmann. "Elektrooptischer und Faraday- Effekt". Physikalische Institut der Universitt Freiburg, 1977. Masters thesis,

[Wik09a] Wikipedia. Birefringence wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2009. [Online; accessed 13-March-2009]. [Wik09b] Wikipedia. Pockels effect wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2009. [Online; accessed 13-March-2009].

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