A static magnetic field B^0, acting on a chiral liquid perpendicular to the propagation direction of an optical beam, is shown to induce a magnetochiral change of Rayleigh light scattering which is different in sign for the light scattered parallel and antiparallel to B^0. It is related to the electric dipole and magnetic dipole or/and electric quadrupole moments induced simultaneously in a chiral molecule by electric dipole interaction with electromagnetic radiation. For diamagnetic molecules the effect is described by linear and nonlinear polarizabilities, responsible also for circular birefringence (natural optical activity and the Faraday effect) as well as axial (magnetochiral) birefringence.
A molecular approach to optical rectification via the imaginary part of the second-order susceptibility related to electric dipole interaction with the radiation field is presented. A quantum-mechanical expression for the frequency dependence of the effect is obtained and its magnitude is estimated in absorption bands of a three-level model.
The analytical explanation of axial birefringence revealed earlier by the technique of field applied molecular dynamics computer simulation is given. The point group symmetries of achiral molecules admitting the effect are determined and the estimation of the anisotropy is presented. The effect may give information on off-diagonal elements of the Rosenfeld polarizability tensor of achiral molecules.
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