Anomalously large electro-optic Pockels effect at the air-water interface with an electric field applied parallel to the interface

The optical Pockels effect was observed at the air-water interface by electromodulation spectroscopy. When an AC electric field of frequency f was applied parallel to a water surface between Pt electrodes, the field induced a change in the transmitted light intensity synchronized at 1f proportional to the field strength. The 1f signals dominated over 2f signals by one order of magnitude and the signal disappeared when the electrodes were completely immersed under the water surface, strongly suggesting that the observed phenomena were due to the Pockels effect at the air-water interface. The Pockels coefficient was estimated to be | r | = 1.4 × 105 pm/V, which is much larger than that at the solid-water interface. However, this is unusual because the parallel electric field does not induce the break in inversion symmetry required for the appearance of the Pockels effect. The electrowetting effect was experimentally ruled out as a mechanism for the Pockels effect, and this made the existence of a field perpendicular to the surface, although extremely weak, the most likely explanation.