Date of Award

7-1962

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Physics

First Advisor

Dr. Stanley K. Derby

Second Advisor

Dr. Ed Wong

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Chapter I

Introduction

The phenomenon known as the Faraday Effect was discovered by Michael Faraday in the year 1845.1 He discovered that when an isotropic substance of high refractive index is placed in a strong magnetic field which is parallel to a beam of plane polarized light, the plane of polarization is rotated. The rotation is proportional to H, the strength of the magnetic field; and to 1, the length of the light path in the sample. If X represents the rotation in minutes then

X = VH1.

The proportionality constant V is known as Verdet's constant. The units of V depend upon the units chosen for H and 1, which usually are gauss and centimeter respectively.

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