Electro-optic Kerr effect

The electro-optic Kerr effect produces linear birefringence proportional to the square of a static applied electric field. Defining the Kerr effect coefficient $K$ by $\Delta n={\lambda }_{0}K{E}^2$, a length $L$ produces phase retardation $\delta =2\pi KL{E}^2$. A switchable quarter-wave plate requires $|\delta |=\pi /2$ modulo $2\pi$, with fixed principal axes. This differs from the Faraday effect, whose eigenpolarizations are circular polarizations.