Magneto-optical properties of binar ferrocolloids

Abstract

In this work, a new method for increasing optical anisotropy of a ferrocolloid through introducing the coiled polymer molecules or elongated nanosized non-magnetic particles is realized. Since the dimensions of structural elements comprising such a binary colloidal solution are small compared to the wavelength, the ferrocolloid remains optically homogeneous. Type I binary ferrocolloids are obtained by introducing polybutadiene molecules into a magnetic fluid (magnetite + kerosene + oleic acid). In this case, an increase in the double refraction (DR) is due to the deformation and stretching of the polymer coils along the magnetic field. In weak fields, double amplification of the signal was detected for the concentration of polymer molecules of about 0.5 %. A further increase in the concentration of impurity molecules weakens DR due to a disturbance of the sedimentation stability of the solution and precipitation of colloidal particles. Type II binary solution is synthesized on the basis of a magnetic fluid and rod-shaped impurity nanoparticles of goethite ( αFeOOH). The transverse dimension of the impurity particles (10 − 30 nm) was close to the average diameter of single-domain magnetite particles, and the longitudinal dimension was an order of magnitude larger. An increase in the DR occurs due to the orientation of long axes of impurity particles along the magnetic field caused by the difference in the ”demagnetizing” coefficients along and across the axis of the particle. The magnetic double refraction has been studied depending on the concentration of magnetite and impurity particles and the strength of the magnetic field. For the first time, an experimental substantiation of the multiple amplification of the DR signal by impurity particles was obtained. In the fields (up to 10 kA/m) and for the volume fraction of impurity particles of the order of one percent, the DR signal is amplified by more than an order of magnitude. In stronger fields, the signal gain, associated with the influence of impurity particles, reaches saturation and, with further increase in the field strength, remains practically unchanged, while the total anisotropy of the solution continues to increase due to the orientation of the magnetite particles.