hdr_rule1.gif (89 bytes)

Encyclopędia Britannica Online




Home
New
Workspace   Help

EncyclopediaInternetDictionary


Article
Format for Printing

Faraday effect

in physics, the rotation of the plane of polarization (plane of vibration) of a light beam by a magnetic field. Michael Faraday, an English scientist, first observed the effect in 1845 when studying the influence of a magnetic field on plane-polarized light waves. (Light waves vibrate in two planes at right angles to one another, and passing ordinary light through certain substances eliminates the vibration in one plane.) He discovered that the plane of vibration is rotated when the light path and the direction of the applied magnetic field are parallel. The Faraday effect occurs in many solids, liquids, and gases. The magnitude of the rotation depends upon the strength of the magnetic field, the nature of the transmitting substance, and Verdet's constant, which is a property of the transmitting substance, its temperature, and the frequency of the light. The direction of rotation is the same as the direction of current flow in the wire of the electromagnet, and therefore if the same beam of light is reflected back and forth through the medium, its rotation is increased each time.

Internet Links

Search for related Internet links that use the term "Faraday effect".

id-indxe.gif (281 bytes)
Information about this topic in other articles

Faraday effect (phys.)


On this Topic

Article
Index Entry
Internet Links


Related Topics

more general
crystal
polarization

also related
optical activity


 



To cite this page:
"Faraday effect" Encyclopędia Britannica Online.
<http://members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=34314&sctn=1>
[Accessed 28 October 2001].

Copyright © 1994-2001 Encyclopędia Britannica, Inc.