Peculiarities of light propagation in optically active absorbing crystals of the orthorhombic system

Peculiarities of the manifestation of optical activity and absorption in crystals of the orthorhombic system of the 222 class are considered. The influence of each effect on the ellipticities of eigenwaves is analyzed. The dependences of the azimuth, ellipticity, and intensity of transmitted light in directions slightly and significantly deviating from the optical axes are considered in detail. Cases are indicated where the approximate relations obtained disregarding multiple reflections and nonorthogonality of eigenwaves in crystal hold true. The differences of the simulated conoscopic patterns of the biaxial absorbing optically active crystals from the patterns of inactive or nonabsorbing crystals are analyzed.