Abstract
Using a non-local effective-medium approach, we analyze the refraction of light in a colloidal medium. We discuss the theoretical grounds and all the necessary precautions to design and perform experiments to measure the effective refractive index in dilute colloids. As an application, we show that it is possible to retrieve the size of small dielectric particles in a colloid by measuring the complex effective refractive index and the volume fraction occupied by the particles.
Highlights
The optical properties of colloids have been a challenging area of research for many years providing important applications [1,2,3,4,5,6]
We have presented a rigorous theoretical framework for the definition and calculation of the effective refractive index of a dilute colloidal system, whether it is optically turbid or not
The effective refractive index comes from a non-local effective medium theory and is in general a complex number, even in the absence of optical absorption
Summary
The optical properties of colloids have been a challenging area of research for many years providing important applications [1,2,3,4,5,6]. One must recognize that the effective optical parameters should be associated only the coherent beam, which is defined as an average field, where the average is usually a configurational one taken over all possible random locations of the colloidal particles. It has been shown by several authors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] that the average electromagnetic field in a random colloidal medium propagates with an effective wave vector. Refraction in and out of the colloidal medium, as well as actual propagation of the refracted beam through the system
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