Electric birefringence of critical micellar solutions

Abstract

Measurements of static and dynamic electric birefringence of nonionic micellar solutions near the critical consolution point show a diverging Kerr coefficient B and a diverging rise time of the birefringence signal. The static data are consistent with the droplet model which predicts that B grow as the correlation length ξ. The transient behavior, observed for the first time in a critical system, shows a strong asymmetry between rise and decay of birefringence. The rise is nonexponential and follows, sufficiently close to the critical point, a universal function of scaled time. The time-scaling factor approximately behaves as ${\xi }^{\mathrm{-}2}$.