Kerr effect
Efecto Kerr
- Date
- 1875 · confidence high
- Place
- Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- John Kerr
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
Scottish physicist John Kerr discovered that a material's refractive index changes in proportion to the square of an applied electric field. This quadratic electro-optic effect allows light to be modulated electrically and underlies the well-known "Kerr cells".
What it led to
- Kerr cells for high-speed light modulation
- Self-focusing of intense laser beams (optical Kerr effect)
- Rapatronic cameras used to photograph nuclear explosions