Double refraction in Iceland spar (Bartholin)
Doble refracción del espato de Islandia (Bartholin)
- Date
- 1669 · confidence high
- Place
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Credited to
- Erasmus Bartholin
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
Bartholin discovers that an Icelandic calcite crystal splits a ray of light in two and shows two images of whatever is seen through it. It is the first observation of birefringence.
The crystals came from Iceland, but the study was done in Copenhagen; Newton and Huygens later studied the phenomenon without fully explaining it.
What it led to
- Huygens's wave theory of double refraction (1690)
- Malus's discovery of polarization
- the Nicol prism and polarimeters