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Concept
Birefringence
Summary
Birefringence is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are said to be birefringent (or birefractive). The birefringence is often quantified as the maximum difference between refractive indices exhibited by the material. Crystals with non-cubic crystal structures are often birefringent, as are plastics under mechanical stress.
Birefringence is responsible for the phenomenon of double refraction whereby a ray of light, when incident upon a birefringent material, is split by polarization into two rays taking slightly different paths. This effect was first described by Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669, who observed it in calcite crystals which have one of the strongest birefringences. In the 19th century Augustin-Jean Fresnel described the phenomenon in terms of polarization, understanding light as a wave with field components in transverse polarization (perpendicular to the direction of the wave vector). Birefringence plays an important role in achieving phase-matching for a number of nonlinear optical processes.
A mathematical description of wave propagation in a birefringent medium is presented below. Following is a qualitative explanation of the phenomenon.
The simplest type of birefringence is described as uniaxial, meaning that there is a single direction governing the optical anisotropy whereas all directions perpendicular to it (or at a given angle to it) are optically equivalent. Thus rotating the material around this axis does not change its optical behaviour. This special direction is known as the optic axis of the material. Light propagating parallel to the optic axis (whose polarization is always perpendicular to the optic axis) is governed by a refractive index no (for "ordinary") regardless of its specific polarization. For rays with any other propagation direction, there is one linear polarization that would be perpendicular to the optic axis, and a ray with that polarization is called an ordinary ray and is governed by the same refractive index value no.
Official source
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