Refinement of an experimental technique for measuring birefringence by the polarization-dependent transmission method.

Authors

A Karandikar, S Wats, P Kumar

Published in

The Review of scientific instruments. Volume 97. Issue 9. Sep 01, 2026.

Abstract

We discuss a modified polarization-dependent transmission method to measure birefringence in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell of moderate thickness. Determining birefringence accurately by monitoring the transmitted intensity in a thick NLC cell (and hence a large path difference) is challenging for the following two reasons: (a) a large drop in transmitted light intensity due to scattering losses near the clearing temperature and (b) a sharp jump in the birefringence over a narrow temperature window close to the clearing point. To detect the transmitted light intensity profile precisely, we converted the incident laser into a modulated signal using an optical chopper and measured the transmitted light intensity using a sensitive photodetector coupled to a lock-in amplifier (LIA). Furthermore, the transmitted intensity was normalized against a reference beam to account for any fluctuations in the laser source. The birefringence and the critical exponents (β and α) calculated using this method agree with reported data within experimental error.

PMID:
42678270
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.