- Cotton–Mouton effect
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In physical optics, the Cotton–Mouton effect refers to the double refraction of light in a liquid in the presence of a constant transverse magnetic field. It is a similar but stronger effect than the Voigt effect (in which the medium is a gas instead of a liquid). The electric analog is the Kerr effect.
It was discovered in 1907 by Aimé Cotton and Henri Mouton.
When a linearly polarized wave propagates perpendicular to magnetic field (e.g. in a magnetized plasma), it can become elliptized. Because linearly polarized wave is some combination of in-phase X & O modes and X & O waves propagate with different phase velocities causing elliptization of the emerging beam.
As wave propagates, phase difference (δ) between EX & EO increases
See also
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