double refraction: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	birefringence

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$double refraction$

$Diagram of double refraction: an unpolarized light ray enters a transparent calcite crystal and splits into a straight ordinary ray and an upward-bending extraordinary ray.$

Diagram showing two horizontal tubes with rodlike macromolecules: in A, the molecules are randomly oriented, while in B, they are aligned parallel, illustrating flow birefringence.

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Topics

pleochroism extraordinary ray ordinary ray electro-optic phenomenon photoelasticity dichroism trichroism Pockels effect Kerr electro-optic effect Kerr cell crystal defect Snell’s law symmetry polymorphism rainbow Brewster’s law mirage refractive index reststrahlen Miller indices

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Erasmus Bartholin

Danish physician and physicist