Vibration and the Kerr effect

Abstract

The theory of the Kerr effect (electric birefringence) is developed with explicit inclusion of molecular vibration. When the theory is applied to CHCl₃ and CHF₃, it is found that terms with a vibrational origin are an important component of the β-hyperpolarizability extracted from temperature-dependent Kerr studies. It is concluded that these vibrational terms partly account for the difference between β obtained from second-harmonic-generation experiments and from the Kerr constant.