Most solids are known to be birefringent. Does this have something to do with the lattice structure of the crystal? Other than sodium chloride, which has a very simple cubic lattice, solid crystal are, eventhough highly symmetrical, are not as simple as cube.
What happen when a light comes to a medium is approximately this:
particles in the crystal sees the light and absorbs it. They will vibrate because of it and then they will emit it out. Index of refraction depends on the medium which implicitly tells us that it depends on 'the extend to which the particle do such process'. Maybe when a light comes to a birefringent medium, the configuration of atoms that they meet will be different. crytallographically dependent.
Birefringent materials are usually solids, 90% of solids are, and polymer too. Air, Liquid are not. Maybe this is due to a relatively distant separation between atoms inside it, so at different direction, it would not be able to tell the difference.
want to know more about it ei...! pretty cool, huh?
