noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The splitting of a ray of light into two parallel rays of perpendicular polarization by passage through an optically anisotropic medium; the property of a material that light passing through it is so split. countable, uncountable

   "In figure 6, the birefringence, δ, for 2H, 4H, 6H, and 15R is plotted as a function of wavelength."

2. 2
   splitting a ray into two parallel rays polarized perpendicularly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

double refractiondouble refractionbirefractionbirefractivity

Example

More examples

"In figure 6, the birefringence, δ, for 2H, 4H, 6H, and 15R is plotted as a function of wavelength."

Etymology

From bi- + refringence.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.