The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Broken symmetry of the kinetic coefficients and specular optical activity

Broken symmetry of the kinetic coefficients and specular optical activity
Broken symmetry of the kinetic coefficients and specular optical activity
The optical consequences of the violation of thermodynamic equilibrium in a crystal are investigated. If this violation occurs it may lead to breaking of time reversibility. As a result of this the internal symmetry of the optical susceptibility tensors changes and new "forbidden" tensor components arise. This gives way to some forbidden specular polarization phenomena in optics, observation of which may be used for diagnostics of the crystal equilibrium. The wave theory of normal reflection from a crystal interface including consideration of the role of the forbidden components is developed. Two mechanisms for forbidden specular polarization effects are identified, one due to the appearance of a contribution to the dielectric tensor which is antisymmetric under interchange of tensor indices, and another associated with the symmetric contribution to the nonlocal optical response. Crystal point group analysis shows that, depending on crystal class, forbidden specular polarization effects may be seen with or without a background of "conventional" optical activity. The physical conditions for their observation are discussed and recent polarization-sensitive experiments in optically excited GaAs crystals are explained in terms of the developed theory. It is also shown how this approach may be used for the description of time-reversal-symmetry-breaking specular optical activity in the superconducting phase of high-Tc cuprate materials.
1550-235X
16141-16147
Bungay, A.R.
af92824a-1e97-4e31-9f03-24a9200e688b
Svirko, Yu.P.
7f25d295-99e3-465b-80f1-121c69f9e0ad
Zheludev, N.I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6
Bungay, A.R.
af92824a-1e97-4e31-9f03-24a9200e688b
Svirko, Yu.P.
7f25d295-99e3-465b-80f1-121c69f9e0ad
Zheludev, N.I.
32fb6af7-97e4-4d11-bca6-805745e40cc6

Bungay, A.R., Svirko, Yu.P. and Zheludev, N.I. (1993) Broken symmetry of the kinetic coefficients and specular optical activity. Physical Review B, 47 (24), 16141-16147. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.47.16141).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The optical consequences of the violation of thermodynamic equilibrium in a crystal are investigated. If this violation occurs it may lead to breaking of time reversibility. As a result of this the internal symmetry of the optical susceptibility tensors changes and new "forbidden" tensor components arise. This gives way to some forbidden specular polarization phenomena in optics, observation of which may be used for diagnostics of the crystal equilibrium. The wave theory of normal reflection from a crystal interface including consideration of the role of the forbidden components is developed. Two mechanisms for forbidden specular polarization effects are identified, one due to the appearance of a contribution to the dielectric tensor which is antisymmetric under interchange of tensor indices, and another associated with the symmetric contribution to the nonlocal optical response. Crystal point group analysis shows that, depending on crystal class, forbidden specular polarization effects may be seen with or without a background of "conventional" optical activity. The physical conditions for their observation are discussed and recent polarization-sensitive experiments in optically excited GaAs crystals are explained in terms of the developed theory. It is also shown how this approach may be used for the description of time-reversal-symmetry-breaking specular optical activity in the superconducting phase of high-Tc cuprate materials.

Text
315P
Download (1MB)

More information

Published date: 1993
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 78502
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/78502
ISSN: 1550-235X
PURE UUID: dfec9934-7e3c-49af-a75a-a7eb9cd041ce
ORCID for N.I. Zheludev: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1013-6636

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 11 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:36

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: A.R. Bungay
Author: Yu.P. Svirko
Author: N.I. Zheludev ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×