 Solution

The Faraday effect rotates the plane of linear polarization when light propagates through a material with a magnetic field component along the ray. In the weak-field transparent regime,with a stated propagation and transverse-basis convention; $V$ is the Verdet constant. For a uniform longitudinal field and sample length $L$, the magnitude is $|VBL|$. A scalar intensity change without a corresponding polarization analysis would not establish this effect.

The microscopic field breaks the equivalence of the two circular polarization modes: the Lorentz force and the Zeeman shifts of optical transitions produce different susceptibilities for their opposite senses of rotation. A linearly polarized wave is an equal-amplitude superposition of these two modes. If their real refractive refractive indices are $n_{+},n_{-}$, their relative wave phase after the sample is $\Delta \varphi =(\omega L/c)(n_{+}-n_{-})$. Recombination rotates the line byEqual transmitted circular amplitudes preserve linear polarization. Unequal absorption produces circular dichroism and generally elliptical polarization as well, so pure rotation is an approximation appropriate away from strong absorption.

A modern motivating experiment sends polarized laser light through a glass rod inside a solenoid, then through a rotatable analyzer onto a photodiode. Scan the analyzer first to calibrate its angular response. Driving the solenoid sinusoidally and recording the detector synchronously separates a small rotation signal from unsynchronized noise; the conversion to angle still requires the analyzer slope and the magnetic-field integral through the rod. A first-party William & Mary laboratory manual specifies this apparatus and measurement procedure.^[ref]

Additional controls are equal-magnitude field reversals, zero-field readings before and after each pair, and a blocked-beam pickup test. The odd-in-field rotation is $[{\theta }_{\mathrm{obs}}(B)-{\theta }_{\mathrm{obs}}(-B)]/2$; a fixed analyzer offset cancels. Heating, stressed-glass birefringence, source drift and field-dependent transmission need separate checks. A single reading near crossed extinction loses the sign because its leading response is quadratic; an analyzer near $45^{\circ }$ gives a linear small-rotation response.

Faraday rotation is nonreciprocal. With the magnetic bias held fixed, retracing the path adds rotation in the same laboratory sense rather than undoing it, unlike reciprocal natural optical activity. This permits an optical isolator with a $45^{\circ }$ Faraday rotator between appropriately oriented polarizers. One must compare the returned polarization in a consistently defined laboratory basis; merely reversing the sign of $\mathbf{B}\cdot \hat{\mathbf{k}}$ while retaining the old ray-basis convention gives an incorrect cancellation.