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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Hyperspectral Imaging as a Tool to Study Optical Anisotropy in Lanthanide-Based Molecular Single Crystals
Published on: April 14, 2020
Raman Tensor Formalism for Optically Anisotropic Crystals
Christian Kranert1, Chris Sturm1, Rüdiger Schmidt-Grund1
1Universität Leipzig, Institut für Experimentelle Physik II, Abteilung Halbleiterphysik, Linnéstraße 5, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Abstract:
We present a formalism for calculating the Raman scattering intensity dependent on the polarization configuration for optically anisotropic crystals. It can be applied to crystals of arbitrary orientation and crystal symmetry measured in normal incidence backscattering geometry. The classical Raman tensor formalism cannot be used for optically anisotropic materials due to birefringence causing the polarization within the crystal to be depth dependent. We show that in the limit of averaging over a sufficiently large scattering depth, the observed Raman intensities converge and can be described by an effective Raman tensor given here. Full agreement with experimental results for uniaxial and biaxial crystals is demonstrated.
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