Temperature Studies of Optical Birefringence in Molecular Liquids. I. Liquids with Linear Temperature Dependence

We report the first systematic study of the temperature dependence of optically induced birefringence in benzene, toluene, nitrobenzene, chlorobenzene, 2-bromoanisole, 2-methylbenzaldehyde, 3-methylbenzaldehyde, 3-chlorobenzaldehyde and cinnamaldehyde. The optical Kerr constants, relative to benzene, are measured in a broad temperature range. Refractive indices and densities of the liquids for the temperatures studied were also determined. For the above liquids the T$\text{}^{-1}$ temperature dependences of the optical Kerr constants have been found. From our measurements, the molar Kerr constants and the effective molecular anisotropies were calculated as functions of temperature. The mean values of the second-order optical hyperpolarizability have also been determined