A gyrotropic (i.e., circularly birefringent) medium gives rise to a variety of interesting optical effects in addition to the well‐known one of optical activity, the rotation of a plane of linear polarization. This article considers manifestations of gyrotropy associated principally with light reflection from a transparent chiral medium. Such effects include the possible inequality of the angles of reflection and incidence, the generation of elliptically polarized light from incident linearly polarized light, and the differential reflection of right and left circularly polarized light. Reflection from a transparent gyrotropic medium is similar in some ways to, although distinct from, reflection from a conductor or absorbing medium.
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© 1986 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1986
American Association of Physics Teachers
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