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Optical rotation, also known as polarization rotation or circular birefringence, is the rotation of the orientation of the plane of polarization about the optical axis of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain materials. Circular birefringence and circular dichroism are the manifestations of optical activity.
Specific rotation is an intensive property, distinguishing it from the more general phenomenon of optical rotation. As such, the observed rotation (α) of a sample of a compound can be used to quantify the enantiomeric excess of that compound, provided that the specific rotation ([α]) for the enantiopure compound is known.
In all materials the rotation varies with wavelength. The variation is caused by two quite different phenomena. The first accounts in most cases for the majority of the variation in rotation and should not strictly be termed rotatory dispersion. It depends on the fact that optical activity is actually circular birefringence.
The Faraday effect or Faraday rotation, sometimes referred to as the magneto-optic Faraday effect (MOFE), [1] is a physical magneto-optical phenomenon. The Faraday effect causes a polarization rotation which is proportional to the projection of the magnetic field along the direction of the light propagation.
Figure 1: The optical circuit symbol for an isolator Faraday effect. The main component of the optical isolator is the Faraday rotator. The magnetic field, , applied to the Faraday rotator causes a rotation in the polarization of the light due to the Faraday effect. The angle of rotation, , is given by,
The (+) or (−) symbol is used to specify a molecule's optical rotation — the direction in which the polarization of light rotates as it passes through a solution containing the molecule. [12] When a molecule is denoted dextrorotatory, it rotates the plane of polarized light clockwise and can also be denoted as (+). [11]
Subscripts 1 and 2 refer to initial and final optical media respectively. These ratios are sometimes also used, following simply from other definitions of refractive index, wave phase velocity, and the luminal speed equation:
Assume an optical element has its optic axis [clarification needed] perpendicular to the surface vector for the plane of incidence [clarification needed] and is rotated about this surface vector by angle θ/2 (i.e., the principal plane through which the optic axis passes, [clarification needed] makes angle θ/2 with respect to the plane of ...