Optical activity: rotation of the plane of polarization
Actividad óptica: rotación del plano de polarización
- Date
- 1811-1815 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- François Arago and Jean-Baptiste Biot
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
Arago observes in 1811 that quartz rotates the plane of polarized light, and Biot discovers in 1815 that liquids such as turpentine and sugar solutions do too. It is the basis of the polarimeter and of molecular chirality.
The phenomenon is credited to both for successive work; Fresnel gave his explanation with circularly polarized light (1822).
What it led to
- Pasteur's molecular chirality (1848)
- polarimetry and saccharimetry
- analysis of oils and sugars by rotation