Dr. Vadym Zayets

The conditions, at which conventional longitudinal and transverse MO effects occur, are very different. That is a reason why the properties of the longitudinal and transverse MO effects are very different as well.

Polarization rotation

The best-known feature of the longitudinal MO effect, the rotation of the polarization plane is not a feature of the transverse MO effect. The transverse MO effect does not cause any polarization rotation. Due to the transverse MO effect the absorption and refractivity of light changes when the magnetic field is reversed.

Polarization affected

The longitudinal MO effect influences both orthogonal polarizations. The absorption and refraction of both left and right circularly polarized waves change when the magnetic field is reversed. By contrast, only one polarization is affected by transverse MO effect and the orthogonal polarization is not sensitive to MO.

Where it occurs

Longitudinal MO effect occurs in bulk of material. In contrast the transverse MO effect occurs only in layered structures. It has never been observed in free-space.

Influence of interfaces

The magnitude of the longitudinal MO effect decreases in the case of light propagation along a multilayer structure, because of “TE-TM mode mismatch” problem. In order to achieve high magnitude of the longitudinal MO effect in most of cases the interfaces should be graded. By contrast, to achieve a substantial transverse MO effect sharp interfaces are required.