Eur. Phys. J. AP 17, 189-200 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2002012

Optical anisotropy and EO properties of ferroelectrics TGS and LHP single crystals using a HAUP technique

Departamento de Física Básica, Facultad de Física, Universidad de La Laguna, Avda. Francisco Sánchez s/n°, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Corresponding author: chdezr@ull.es

Received: 12 July 2001
Revised: 7 November 2001
Accepted: 20 November 2001
Published online: 15 March 2002

Abstract

Triglycine sulphate, (TGS), is a ferroelectric crystal widely used in optical properties studies, phase transitions theory as well as test for experimental techniques. Lead monohydrogen phosphate, PbHPO₄ (LHP), is a typical representative of the family of ferroelectric schultenites, suitable in testing microscopic theories of ferroelectricity. In this work the so-called high-accuracy universal polarimeter (HAUP) has been used to determine the natural anisotropy in the birefringent crystalline sections (010), obtaining the temperature dependence of optical anisotropy magnitudes of the crystal: gyrotropy, birefringence and optical indicatrix rotation. Our HAUP technique also permits to investigate the electro-optic (EO) coefficients associated to the phases above and below phase transition temperatures.