Feature

The Kerr effect

Bruce A. Garetz

In 1875, the Scotsman John Kerr discovered that transparent, amorphous substances, such as glass and many liquids, become doubly refracting while subjected to a strong electric field.1 This phenomenon became the basis for the construction of optically bistable devices and ultrafast optical shutters, and it has become valuable in the study of molecular structure and dynamics.

Publish Date: 01 October 1986