Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The resolution or splitting of a light wave into two unequally reflected or transmitted waves by an optically anisotropic medium such as calcite or quartz. Also called double refraction.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Double refraction.
- n. The strength of the double refraction, that is, the difference between the two indices of refraction for a uniaxial crystal and that between the maximum and minimum indices for a biaxial crystal. See refraction, 1.
Wiktionary
- n. physics the splitting of a ray of light into two parallel rays of perpendicular polarization by passage through an optically anisotropic medium
WordNet 3.0
- n. splitting a ray into two parallel rays polarized perpendicularly
Examples
“Calcite splits incoming rays of light in two, known as birefringence.”
The Guardian: Sunstones could have helped Vikings navigate from Norway to America
“This is known as birefringence and has a large effect on the polarization of light orientation of the wave.”
“I'm really tired so I'll post the birefringence pictures tomorrow. posted by John @ 3:08 AM online”
“There are simple devices that can show the birefringence, in fact it can look very pretty, but our project sponsor wants to know quantitatively what the birefringence is over his plastic elements.”
“By rotating this piece and flipping it around we can make the four measurements needed to get the retardance and birefringence.”
“A Pockels cell alters the polarization state of light passing through it when an applied voltage induces birefringence changes in an electro-optic crystal such as DKDP (KD*P) and BBO.”
“Having the data on top prevents birefringence and therefore prevents readability problems.”
“Vectorial fiber laser using intracavity axial birefringence.”
“Waveplates are made from materials which exhibit birefringence.”
“It is a transparent substance that can split a single beam of light into two beams, which is known as birefringence.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘birefringence’.
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Minerals and Mineralogy
List of minerals, elements, group names and geochemistry terms encountered in the science of mineralogy. I've chosen to avoid capital letters in most examples, though a great many mineral names hon...
galkhaite, xanthoconite, pyrostilpnite, polybasite, pyrargyrite, djurleite, digenite, covellite, chalcocite, cerargirite, acanthite, aeschynite and 2608 more...
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Waves and Waveforms
wave, brainwave, soliton, traveling wave, tidal wave, transverse wave, capillary wave, cats' paws, alpha wave, light wave, microwave, acoustic wave and 314 more...
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Pet Rocks and Carbon Footprints
Soil samples for stone soup.
palynology, stratigraphy, tse'bit'ai, tse bitai, tse bit ai, bitai, minette, maar, lithosphere, peridotite, gneiss, gabbro and 115 more...
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rays & x-rays
raised rays
cow-nosed ray, x-ray, roentgenogram, radiogram, sunray, tomograph, whipparee, oxeye, thulium, raster, moonbeam, robinia and 86 more...
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Words beginning with B
birefringence, bureau, blot, barter, beyond, blunder, byre, byrgius, bowl, baste, bastardsawed, bastel house and 44 more...
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Wordplayer's Wonderful Words
chaparral, grotesque, knork, newsmonger, thitherwards, fackeltanz, kakistocracy, sforzando, compendium, frump, inquere, phosphene and 100 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
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ruzuzu's taxonomy
limit cycle, gyre, oscillation, meander, general adaptatio..., barchan dune, soliton, guilloche, obverse, involute, damaskeening, superposition and 62 more...
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The Inside Jokes
frump, defrock, birefringence, cabotage, westward, stye, tourniquet, leather, mansion, circumlocution, pneumonoultramicr..., haboob and 15 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for birefringence.
Wordplayer My friend and I found this in the dictionary one day while we were tutoring..,its a neat word. Dec 31, 2010