Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136: 88
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-01052-w

Regular Article

Fizeau’s light birefringence dragging effect in a moving chiral medium

¹ Department of Physics, University of Malakand, Chakdara Dir(L), Pakistan
² Department of Physics, SBB University Sheringal, Sheringal Dir(U), Pakistan

^d aminoptics@gmail.com

Received: 15 August 2020
Accepted: 24 December 2020
Published online: 17 January 2021

Abstract

The Fizeau’s light birefringence dragging effect is investigated in a moving chiral medium. The effect significantly influences the subluminality, superluminality, phase shift and divergence angle between the circularly polarized birefringent modes. The maximum superluminal group velocity is measured in the range $-4\times {10}^8$–$1\times {10}^{10}$m/s. The group index and group velocity measured with phase of the control field and phase of the superposition states are in the range $0.4\le n_g^{(\pm )}\le 0.8$ and $4\times {10}^8$m/s$\le v_g^{(\pm )}\le 8\times {10}^8$m/s, respectively. The maximum Fizeau’s birefringence dragging coefficient is noted in the range $-20\le F_D\le 20$ and varies with phases of the applied fields in the range $\pm 1$. The birefringent phase uncertainty between the phase shift under dragging and in the absence of the dragging effect is in the range $0.005\le \mathrm{\Delta }{\mathrm{\Phi }}^{(\pm )}\le 0.015$ radian. The divergence angle between the two modes is in the range $0.000\le {\theta }_d\le 0.004$ radian. The controlled birefringence phase uncertainty may show significant applications in interferometry, velocimetry and sensitivity.