Abstract

The crystal growth, dielectric properties, optical properties, and electrooptic effect of the cubic molecular crystal, hexamine, were examined. The fact that the dielectric constant is not a function of frequency at least to 22 Gc/sec and temperature between 77°K and 300°K has been interpreted in terms of a “squashing” vibration of the tetrahedron which forms part of the molecule. A model for an electrooptic effect in molecular crystals in terms of the effect of electric fields on molecular absorptions (Stark effect) was utilized. An expression for the electrooptic coefficient was derived which yielded excellent agreement between the theoretical value of 13.2 × 10⁻¹⁰ cm/V and the best experimental value of 4.18 × 10⁻¹⁰ cm/V for hexamine. A comparison of hexamine to various known electrooptic materials such as KDP, ADP, CuCl, ZnS, GaAs was made, and it was concluded that this material does possess certain advantageous properties.

© 1964 Optical Society of America

Electrooptic Effect in Optically Active Crystals

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