Piezo-optic properties of incommensurately modulated K2ZnCl4 crystals

The effect that uniaxial pressures along the principal crystallophysical directions have on the dispersion and temperature dependences of the birefringence in incommensurate K₂ZnCl₄ crystals has been investigated in a wide temperature range. This parameter has been established to be fairly sensitive to uniaxial pressures. The spectral and temperature dependences of combined piezo-optic coefficients are analyzed. Significant anomalies of these coefficients are found at the incommensurate-commensurate phase transition. They are due to the change in the induced birefringence that results from spontaneous polarization and to the significant effect of uniaxial stress on the soliton structure of the crystal. The contributions that the electrooptic effect, the elasto-optic effect, and the order parameter make to the spontaneous changes in the piezooptic coefficients are separated.