Measurement of Kerr Constants of Conducting Liquids

Abstract

An apparatus is described to measure the Kerr constant of conducting as well as non-conducting liquids and solutions. High-voltage pulses of short duration (1.5 μs) are applied across the Kerr cell and the resultant birefringence is measured by a novel signal-nulling technique. New expressions are derived for the null conditions for an optically active birefringent medium. Results are presented at 633 nm and 293 K for water, methanol, ethanol, propan-1-ol and propan-2-ol. The Kerr constant of water (3.0 × 10^-14 m V^-2) was in good agreement with recent determinations.