Optical activity measurement by use of a balanced detector optical heterodyne interferometer.
What we believe to be a novel amplitude sensitive optical heterodyne polarimeter in which a Zeeman laser is associated with balanced detector detection was set up. The aim was to measure the optical activity of a quartz crystal with a Cornu depolarizer at high accuracy. The features of this novel polarimeter, which include the use of a two-frequency laser that ensures the accuracy of the measurement, are discussed. Furthermore, the detection sensitivity of the optical activity of a quartz crystal was measured as 8.5x10(-10). To our knowledge, this is the highest sensitivity obtained for optical activity measurement of a quartz crystal when the error of the measurement is also analyzed.
Chou
Chien
C
Institute of Biophotonics Engineering, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. cchou@ym.edu.tw
Tsai
Hsiu-Ming
HM
Liao
Kuan-Yung
KY
Chou
Li-Dek
LD
Huang
Po-Hsiong
PH