Magnetic Fluid's Anomalous Pseudo-Cotton Mouton Effects about 107Times Larger than That of Nitrobenzene

Abstract

The magneto-birefringence of magnetic fluid thin films of 12 µm and 25 µm were studied and anomalous phase differences were found when an external magnetic field was applied normal to the direction of light propagation. The order of the phase differences of the films was about 10⁷times larger than that of nitrobenzene, which is known to show a large Cotton-Mouton effect. We attribute these phenomena theoretically to a rod-like chain formation of the ferrite particles in the magnetic fluid thin films and derive expressions for the phase difference and absorption. There is a definite difference in theH-\vartheta curves between theory and experiment in the rising gradient nearH=0.