Pockels effect [SEP] named after
Pockels effect
The Pockels effect (after Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels who studied the effect in 1893), or Pockels electro-optic effect, changes or produces birefringence in an optical medium induced by an electric field. In the Pockels effect, also known as the linear electro-optic effect, the birefringence is proportional to the electric field. In the Kerr effect, the refractive index change (birefringence) is proportional to the square of the field. The Pockels effect occurs only in crystals that lack inversion symmetry, such as
, the directional variation of physical properties that arise from its structure, including optical properties such as birefringency, or electro-optical features such as the Pockels effect.
Notation.
The point groups are named according to their component symmetries. There are several standard notations used by crystallographers, mineralogists, and physicists.
For the correspondence of the two systems below, see crystal system.
Notation Schoenflies notation.
In Schoenflies notation, point groups are denoted by a letter symbol with a subscript. The symbols used in crystallography