Electrical Kerr effect

Several of the third-order nonlinear effects described in section 4.1.3 can be used to characterize bulk materials. Degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) is used for measuring third-order properties of films and solutions [43-45], and though this experiment is complex to set up and interpret, it can give valuable information on the magnitude, sign and speed of the nlo process, as well as an indication of the nature of the excitation process. Results from DFWM can be found in section 4.3. Optical Kerr effect (OKE) [46] and electrical Kerr effect (EKE) [47] measurements have also been used to characterize third-order properties of nlo polymers. It is important to note that THG, DFWM, OKE and EKE all measure different parts of the third-order susceptibility, and... 

As was proven later by Bishop [19], the coefficient A in the expansion (73) is the same for all optical processes. If the expansion (73) is extended to fourth-order [4,19] by adding the term the coefficient B is the same for the dc-Kerr effect and for electric field induced second-harmonic generation, but other fourth powers of the frequencies than are in general needed to represent the frequency-dependence of 7 with process-independent dispersion coefficients [19]. Bishop and De Kee [20] proposed recently for the all-diagonal components yaaaa the expansion... 

Table 1 Coefficients for 7[ (a ) for third harmonic generation (THG), degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM), electric field induced second harmonic generation (ESHG), and Kerr effect in methane at the experimental geometry rcH = 2.052 a.u. A CCSD wavefunction and the t-aug-cc-pVDZ basis were used. (Results given in atomic units, the number in parentheses indicate powers of ten.)...

The physical properties (7-10) of our E-V copolymers are sensitive to their microstructures. Both solution (Kerr effect or electrical birefringence) and solid-state (crystallinity, glass-transitions, blend compatibility, etc.) properties depend on the detailed microstructures of E-V copolymers, such as comonomer and stereosequence distribution. I3C NMR analysis (2) of E-V copolymers yields microstructural information up to and including the comonomer triad level. However, properties such as crystallinity depend on E-V microstructure on a scale larger than comonomer triads. 

Experimental and theoretical results are presented for four nonlinear electrooptic and dielectric effects, as they pertain to flexible polymers. They are the Kerr effect, electric field induced light scattering, dielectric saturation and electric field induced second harmonic generation. We show the relationship between the dipole moment, polarizability, hyperpolarizability, the conformation of the polymer and these electrooptic and dielectric effects. We find that these effects are very sensitive to the details of polymer structure such as the rotational isomeric states, tacticity, and in the case of a copolymer, the comonomer composition. 

The Kerr effect is the birefringence induced in a medium by an external electric field (12). From such an experiment we deduce the molar Kerr constant mK, thus... 

When a strong static electric field is applied across a medium, its dielectric and optical properties become anisotropic. When a low frequency analyzing electric field is used to probe the anisotropy, it is called the nonlinear dielectric effect (NLDE) or dielectric saturation (17). It is the low frequency analogue of the Kerr effect. The interactions which cause the NLDE are similar to those of EFLS. For a single flexible polar molecule, the external field will influence the molecule in two ways firstly, it will interact with the total dipole moment and orient it, secondly, it will perturb the equilibrium conformation of the molecule to favor the conformations with the larger dipole moment. Thus, the orientation by the field will cause a decrease while the polarization of the molecule will cause an... 

We have shown in this paper the relationships between the fundamental electrical parameters, such as the dipole moment, polarizability and hyperpolarizability, and the conformations of flexible polymers which are manifested in a number of their electrooptic and dielectric properties. These include the Kerr effect, dielectric polarization and saturation, electric field induced light scattering and second harmonic generation. Our experimental and theoretical studies of the Kerr effect show that it is very useful for the characterization of polymer microstructure. Our theoretical studies of the NLDE, EFLS and EFSHG also show that these effects are potentially useful, but there are very few experimental results reported in the literature with which to test the calculations. More experimental studies are needed to further our understanding of the nonlinear electrooptic and dielectric properties of flexible polymers. 

Polarized light is obtained when a beam of natural (unpolarized) light passes through some types of anisotropic matter. In optical instruments this is usually a birefringent crystal which splits the incident unpolarized beam into two beams of perpendicular linear polarization, known as the ordinary and extraordinary beams. Anisotropy can also be created by the effect of an electric field, this being known as the Kerr effect. 

A combination of molecular mechanics calculations and electric birefringence (electro-optical Kerr effect) measurements of group IVB aryl compounds has been used to study conformational effects in these molecules12731. 

The Kerr effect is the result of applying an electric field to produce birefringence. This phenomena is commonly observed for both colloidal and polymeric liquids and is used in the characterization of the structure of these materials. Alternatively, by using an AC electric field, a modulation of the polarization of light can be affected. Such devices have rarely been used as modulators but do have the potential of allowing higher frequencies than the more common photoelastic devices. 

The usefulness of electrical response measurements of solutions is not limited to effects linear in applied field. Transient birefringence induced by polarizing electric fields (the transient or dynamic Kerr effect) has given valuable information about biopolymers in solution the effect must by symmetry be an even function of E(t), beginning with terms in E (t). In both cases, a response theory treatment of transient behavior meets with difficulties not encountered in linear problems, but recent progress in deriving correlation function expressions for such effects is described in III. 

This outline of the response theory has for simplicity been limited to molecules with axial symmetry of y and Aa and to the field on, field off cases, but can be extended in both respects without basic difficulties. Detailed comparisons with experiment have not yet been made, but it already is clear that Kerr effect relaxation data can now provide more valuable and better defined information about orientational dynamics of biopolymers and other molecules than was previously possible. With the increasing accuracy and time resolution of digital methods, it should be possible to study not only slow overall rotations of large molecules (microseconds or longer) but small conformational effects and small molecule reorientations on nano and picosecond time scales. Moreover, one can anticipate the possibilities, for simple problems at least, of extending response theory to other quadratic and higher order effects of strong electric fields on observable responses. 

In 1875 John Kerr carried out experiments on glass and detected electric-field-induced optical anisotropy. A quadratic dependence of n on E0 is now known as the Kerr effect. In 1883 both Wilhelm Rontgen and August Kundt independently reported a linear electro-optic effect in quartz which was analysed by Pockels in 1893. The linear electro-optical effect is termed the Pockels effect. 

An issue that has been explored is how the relative distribution of charge and mass affect the viscosity of an ionic liquid. Kobrak and Sandalow [183] pointed out that ionic dynamics are sensitive to the distance between the centers of charge and mass. Where these centers are separated, ionic rotation is coupled to Coulomb interactions with neighboring ions where the centers of charge and mass are the same, rotational motion is, in the lowest order description, decoupled from an applied electric field. This is significant, because the Kerr effect experiments and simulation studies noted in Section III. A imply a separation of time scales for ionic libration (fast) and translation (slow) in ILs. Ions in which charge and mass centers are displaced can respond rapidly to an applied electric field via libration. Time-dependent electric fields are generated by the motion of ions in the liquid... 

Here Xo (2w), x (wiiw2) and Xo (O) are the non-resonant values of the hyperpolarisabilities. Thus second harmonic generation is resonantly enhanced at both the fundamental and the harmonic of the optical transition, sum and difference frequency generation at the fundamentals and the sum and difference frequencies, and the rarely observed optical rectification only at the fundamental frequency. The term 3 in the expansion gives rise to effects such as third harmonic generation, x(3) -3oj oj, oj,u>), electric field induced second harmonic generation, x(3) (- 2w 0,w, oj), the optical Kerr effect, x(3) (-oj oj, oj, -cj), etc. that will display resonances at oj, 2oj and 3u>. 

Electro-absorption (EA) spectroscopy, where optical absorption is observed under the application of an electric field to the sample, is another method that can distinguish between localised and inter-band excitations. The electric field produces a Stark shift of allowed optical absorptions and renders forbidden transitions allowed by mixing the wavefunctions of the excited states. Excitons show a quadratic Stark (Kerr) effect with a spectral profile that is the first derivative of the absorption spectrum for localised (Frenkel) excitons and the second derivative for charge transfer excitons, i.e. 

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