Creation
While birefringence is often found naturally (like anisotropic crystals), there are several ways to create it in optically isotropic materials:
- Birefringence results when isotropic materials are deformed such that the isotropy is lost in one direction (i.e., stretched or bent). Example
- By the Pockels effect, where an electric field can induce molecules to line up or behave asymmetrically, inducing anisotropy;
- By the Faraday effect, where a magnetic field can cause a material to be circularly birefringent, with different indices of refraction for oppositely-handed circular polarizations similar to an optically active material;
- By self or forced alignment of highly polar molecules such as lipids, some surfactants or liquid crystals, that generate highly birefringent thin films.
Read more about this topic: Birefringence
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