The Pockels effect (after Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels who studied the effect in 1893), or Pockels electro-optic effect, produces birefringence in an optical medium induced by a constant or varying electric field. It is distinguished from the Kerr effect by the fact that the birefringence is proportional to the electric field, whereas in the Kerr effect it is quadratic to the field. The Pockels effect occurs only in crystals that lack inversion symmetry, such as lithium niobate or gallium arsenide and in other noncentrosymmetric media such as electric-field poled polymers or glasses.
Read more about Pockels Effect: Pockels Cells, Applications of Pockels Cells
Famous quotes containing the word effect:
“At the heart of the educational process lies the child. No advances in policy, no acquisition of new equipment have their desired effect unless they are in harmony with the child, unless they are fundamentally acceptable to him.”
—Central Advisory Council for Education. Children and Their Primary Schools (Plowden Report)