The magnetochiral birefringence in diamagnetic solutions and in uniaxial crystals Original Research Article

We report the interferometric measurement of the magnetochiral birefringence in several chiral organic solutions and in the chiral uniaxial crystals α-quartz and LiIO3 at a wavelength of 633 nm and in static magnetic fields of up to 5 T. The technical details of the experimental procedure are described in P. Kleindienst and G. Wagnière [Chem. Phys. Lett. 288 (1998) 89]. The results are in agreement with the predicted selection rules. The orders of magnitude correlate with those for natural optical rotation and magnetic optical rotation. An unexpected behaviour is found in LiIO3 at fields above ∼3 T, and its possible origins are discussed.