Optical activity of KH₂PO₄

Abstract

Abstract By applying the improved HAUP method, measurements of gyration tensor g 11 of KH2PO4 (KDP) were made with application of biasing electric fields up to 20 kv/cm. It was found that the gyration tensor with zero electric field manifests a sharp peak at Tc and it becomes depressed depending on magnitude of the electric fields. Moreover, gyration tensor g 11 of KD2PO4 (DKDP) was measured, and it was confirmed that the temperature dependence of the gyration tensor obeys the Curie-Weiss law as is the case with KDP. Then the Curie constants for KDP and DKDP were obtained as 6.90 × 10−4 K and 1.10 × 10−3 K respectively.