All-optical efficient measurement of the Verdet Constant in achiral and chiral liquid solutions: towards all-optical Magnetic-Spectroscopies

Abstract Magneto-optical properties are wide and span various applications such as magnetic field sensing, imaging technologies, security encoding... In this work, we have revisited the all-optical Inverse Faraday effect method to measure the Faraday rotation angle and determine the Verdet constant of diamagnetic/paramagnetic liquid solutions. We show that using a picosecond laser source the Inverse Faraday effect enables to reach magnetic flux densities in liquids in the range of 1-100 T with average power ranging below 10 mW, levels which are comparable or higher than those obtained using electromagnets to generate pulsed magnetic fields. This all-optical method with no pump-probe scheme has the advantage that it requires small volumes (<100 µl) and enables in situ fast and efficient static measurements. We further show it is possible to determine the Verdet constant of solutes in binary diluted solutions and we also emphasize that chiral molecules exhibit considerable enantiomeric difference .