Electric birefringence of a binary liquid mixture near the critical consolute point

Transient electric birefringence measurements are performed in a critical binary mixture, water and butoxyethanol. The Kerr constant near the critical temperature is described rather accurately by a power law with a critical exponent {ψ}=0.85±{}0.05. The transient electric birefringence is found to exhibit stretched-exponential relaxation of the form exp[-t/{τ})ˣ], with x=0.4±{}0.05 and {τ} diverging as a power law in reduced temperature.