double refraction

American  

noun

Optics.

1. the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.

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double refraction British  

noun

1. Also called: birefringence.  the splitting of a ray of unpolarized light into two unequally refracted rays polarized in mutually perpendicular planes

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Etymology

Origin of double refraction

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

double refraction

If it contains no metal, when viewed by polarized light it will give a double refraction effect in handsome colors.

From Time Magazine Archive

For those who wish to study double refraction more in detail, Chapter VI., pages 40-52, of G. F. Herbert-Smith's Gem-Stones will serve admirably as a text.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Wade, Frank Bertram

This was, that this crystal, as well as that from Iceland, has a double refraction, though less evident.

From Treatise on Light by Huygens, Christiaan

With hardness evidently between 7 and 8 and with double refraction and with the kind of flaws peculiar to rather brittle minerals we had in all probability either a tourmaline or an emerald.

From A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public by Wade, Frank Bertram

Or is he more liable to error in noting the fact of his mental joy or sorrow, than in observing the effect of the extraordinary ray in double refraction?

From Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity by Patterson, Robert