Experimental molecularoptics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal : physics in South Africa

Current experimental work being undertaken on electro- and magneto-optical phenomena in the School of Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, is reviewed to introduce our research activity to the broader scientific community. I examine the Rayleigh-scattering, the Kerr electro-optic and the Cotton-Mouton magneto-optic experiments and show how molecular (hyper)polarizabilities and (hyper)magnetizabilities may be extracted from the measured data.