Abstract
Ferrosmectics are magnetic liquid crystals which consist of a lyotropic lamellar phase in which colloidal particles of maghemite are incorporated. The rotational dynamics of the colloidal particles is studied by measuring the linear birefringence relaxation of an oriented ferrosmectic sample submitted to a pulse of magnetic field. Two characteristic time scales are found for the relaxation rate. The shorter (∼5μs) is the characteristic Brownian relaxation time of the particles in the isotropic colloidal suspension (ferrofluid). The slow evolution (∼15ms), due to the presence of the lyotropic matrix, can be interpreted as due to the adsorption of some particles on the surfactant layers.
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