Sign change of polarization rotation under time or space inversion in magnetoelectric YbAl₃(BO₃)₄

Abstract

Materials with optical activity can rotate the polarization plane of transmitted light. The most typical example is the natural optical activity, which has the symmetry property of changing sign after space inversion but being invariant to time inversion. Faraday rotation exhibits the opposite: It is invariant to space inversion but changes sign after time reversal. Here, we demonstrate that in a magnetoelectric material, another type of polarization rotation is possible. This effect is investigated in magnetoelectric YbAl₃(BO₃)₄ under the viewpoint of time and space inversion symmetry arguments. We observe the sign change of the rotation sense under either time or space reversal. This investigation proves that the polarization rotation in YbAl₃(BO₃)₄ must be classified as gyrotropic birefringence, which has been discussed within the idea of time-reversal breaking in underdoped cuprates. The diagonal terms in the magnetoelectric susceptibility are responsible for the observed signal of gyrotropic birefringence. Further analysis of the experimental spectra reveals a substantial contribution of the natural optical activity to the polarization rotation. We also demonstrate that the observed activity originates from the magnetoelectric susceptibility.