PRINCIPLE AND APPLICATION OF CRYSTALLO-OPTICAL EFFECTS INDUCED BY INHOMOGENEOUS DEFORMATION

The influence of inhomogeneous fields on the optical properties of cry stals is discussed on the basis of the phenomenological approach: we d iscuss here the results of birefringences in LiNbO3 crystals under the inhomogeneous mechanical strain (torsion) for various experimental co nfigurations and the observation of optical activity under the torsion al deformation in centrosymmetrical NaBi(MoO4)(2) crystals. The possib ility of application of the torsion-induced optical effects is also me ntioned.