A precise measurement of the Cotton-Mouton effect in neon

In this Letter, we report a novel measurement of the magnetically induced birefringence (Cotton-Mouton effect) in neon. Using a highly sensitive apparatus we were able to precisely measure the specific birefringence value of Δnu = (5.9 ± 0.2) × 10−16 at the wavelength of 1064 nm (for B = 1 T and atmospheric pressure) and T ≈ 290 K. The results reported here are in agreement with theory, while the only previous precise measurement differs significantly.