An Improved Spectroradiometric Method and Apparatus for Measuring Small Polarization Ellipticities

Abstract

A modification of the Sénarmont-Chauvin compensator for measuring small polarization ellipticities has been applied to spectroradiometric work. Over the larger share of the usable spectral range of 0.6µ to 2.0µ the sensitivity is in a class with the best visual methods, and by some sacrifice of spectral purity may be made much more sensitive than any other known method. It has been applied in measuring the Kerr dispersion of CCl4, which is found to follow the Havelock law very closely.