FARADAY-EFFECT IN SILICA GLASSES

A method is proposed to study the Faraday effect of condensed matter. This is a dynamic method to monitor the polarization rotation of a pol arized He-Ne laser beam propagating through a medium placed in an alte rnating magnetic held in the direction of the light propagation. The V erdet constant can be evaluated by means of Fourier transformation of the oscillating laser light intensities at the same frequency of the a lternating magnetic field. The proposed method is applied to study the Faraday effect in silica glasses (Suprasil W2, and Suprasil 2). The e valuated Verdet constants (lambda = 632.8 nm) for Suprasil W2 and Supr asil 2 are found to be(3.897 +/- 0.023) x 10(-6), and (3.930 +/- 0.017 ) x 10(-6) (rad/A), respectively. The wavelength-dependent Verdet cons tant is calculated with the derived equation by means of the dispersio n theory.