Anomalous Birefringence of Light
in Free-Standing Samples of Porous Silicon

M. E. Kompan^1, *, J. Salonen², and I. Yu. Shabanov¹

¹ Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 194021 Russia
*e-mail: kompan@solid.ioffe.rssi.ru

² Turku University, Finland

Received July 15, 1999

Abstract—The birefringence of light in freely suspended samples of porous silicon is observed and investi-
gated. The effect is interpreted as “shape birefringence,” i.e., the effect caused by the structure of a material
consisting of anisotropic formations with sizes less than the wavelength of the light and with a predominant
orientation. It is checked experimentally that the samples do not possess optical activity or optical anisotropy
in the plane of the porous-silicon film. It is determined that the effect is observed for polarization of incident
light that rules out the possibility of observing birefringence in a uniform optical medium, and it is not observed
in the conventional experimental geometry. Qualitative explanations are given for the anomalous character of
the observed defect. © 2000 MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”.

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