Optical activity of a cadmium diphosphide crystal

We have experimentally studied the characteristic features of a laser beam, polarized at angles of ± 45° to the horizontal (vertical), passing through plates of varying thickness cut from a CdP₂ crystal and placed between crossed polarizers, as a function of their angle of rotation relative to the vertical axis. We show that a periodic variation in the intensity is connected with the variation in polarization of the laser beam. We have established that the laser beam remains linearly polarized not only when it passes through the sample along the optic axis, but also when it travels at up to a 17.5° angle to the optic axis. In this case, the specific rotation of the plane of polarization along the optic axis is 68.2 degrees/mm for a thicker plate and 83.3 degrees/mm for a thin plate. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 73, No. 5, pp. 690–693, September–October, 2006.