Birefringence arising from the reorientation of the polarizability anisotropy of molecules in collisionless gases

C. H. Lin; J. P. Heritage; T. K. Gustafson; R. Y. Chiao; J. P. McTague

doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.13.813

Birefringence arising from the reorientation of the polarizability anisotropy of molecules in collisionless gases

C. H. Lin, J. P. Heritage, T. K. Gustafson, R. Y. Chiao, and J. P. McTague

Phys. Rev. A 13, 813 – Published 1 February 1976

Abstract

The refractive-index change in a collisionless gas is evaluated from the Stark shifts of the rotational energy levels that arise from the polarizability anisotropy. In the limit of an extremely-short-duration excitation, a multilevel coherent effect results in delayed refractive-index bursts. Both stationary and transient responses of this birefringence to an optical field are considered for symmetric-top molecules, with particular emphasis on the special case of linear molecules.

Received 28 January 1974

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.13.813

Authors & Affiliations

C. H. Lin^*

Ames Research Center, NASA, Moffett Field, California 94035

J. P. Heritage^† and T. K. Gustafson^†

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and the Electronic Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

R. Y. Chiao

Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

J. P. McTague^‡

Department of Chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024

^*NRC Postdoctoral Fellow from December 1971 to January 1973. Present address: Box 607 Havemeyer Hall, Chemistry Department, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. 10027.
^†Work supported by Joint Services Electronics Program Contract USAF-F44620-71-C-0087 and NASA Grant NGR-05-003-559.
^‡Work partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.

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Vol. 13, Iss. 2 — February 1976

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