The Kerr effect

Objectives
1. To study the PLZT element
as an electro-optical modulator.
2. To calculate Kerrs constant.

Introduction
When a substance (especially a liquid
or a gas) is placed in an electric field
its molecules may become partly
oriented making the substance
birefringent ; that means it can
refract light differently in two
directions. This effect is called
electro-optical Kerr effect or simply
Kerr effect and was discovered in
1875.

 Many crystalline materials exhibit

birefringence naturally, without application
of any voltage. The birefringence is present
all the time. Example of such crystal is
quartz.
There are also a number of crystals that are
not birefringent naturally but in which
application of a voltage induces
birefringence. This phenomenon is called
the electro-optic effect.

 Polarized light is incident on the modulator. The

analyzer, oriented at to the polarizer, prevents any light

from being transmitted when no voltage is applied to the
electro-optic material. When the correct voltage is
applied to the device, the direction of the polarization is
rotated by . Then the light will pass through the analyzer.

The sample (PLZT element)

The Kerr effect is usually
demonstrated by placing a Kerr
cell containing nitrobenzene
between two flat parallel plates
spaced several millimeters and
applying a voltage on the plates.

Circular polarization
Circularly polarized light may be produced by
passing linearly polarized light through a
quarter-wave plate at an angle of 45 to the
optic axis of the plate.
Circularly polarized light consists of : two
perpendicular electromagnetic plane waves of
equal amplitude and 90 difference in phase.

Operation of a Kerr cell

 the plane-polarized light is resolved into two components

parallel and perpendicular to the electric field. The light
beam emerges from the cell circularly polarized because
the two components travel with different speeds and thus
have a phase difference.
The light wave, whose field vector oscillates parallel to the
electric field, is called the extraordinary beam whereas the
wave oscillating perpendicular to the field is known as the
normal beam.
Consequently, the beam will be partially transmitted by the
analyzer. The Kerr cell has been employed in measuring the
speed of light, and is useful in laser and communication
studies.
A silicon photodiode with amplifier is used as
the detector for the luminous intensity behind
the analyzer.

Method of analysis
If
the corresponding refractive indices
are denoted by and and is the
distance in the PLZT element covered
by the light, then there is a difference
in optical paths for the two waves of :
This corresponds to a phase
displacement of
, where is the wavelength of the
light in vacuum

 It
can be shown that the phase
displacement is proportional to length
and the square of polarization . If we
anticipate that the polarization is a
linear function of the electric field
strength and the proportionality
factor is designated by , then the
following relation is obtained:
is the Kerr constant

 ( is the applied voltage and d is the

inter-electrode distance)