Kerr - June 29, 2016

From the math that I understand up until this point, with a maximum light when the polarizers are parallel, we have around 540 uW of power.

if Δ p = 540 uW * sin² θ .... then .1 degrees of rotation corresponds to around .0040 uW of change in power which we can measure.

There must be something we are missing when it comes to the magnetic field and the Kerr effect itself .... Or our setup currently doesn't measure the Kerr effect.

Whatever the problem is when we measure the power very close to the minimum, I was able to complete the experiment attempted yesterday farther from the absolute minimum. If you'd like a refresher of what the experiment looks like go here --> Kerr - June 28, 2016

These graphs show it is possible for the same polarity magnet to increase and decrease the power. This would imply we are seeing the Kerr Effect.

For some reason the slopes are on opposite sides from what I was expecting. I need to think about why this is. Regardless, the fact that the same polarities are capable of increasing and decreasing the amount of light implies we are seeing MOKE in action. This is positive news!

P.S. Here's the original file of the Excel data --> media:leftrightminimum.xlsx