Longitudinal field-induced polarized light transmittance of magnetic fluids

The complete optical transmittance for a polarized light passing through the magnetic fluids is investigated theoretically and experimentally, when the externally magnetic field is applied along the propagation direction of the incident light. Hybrid effects due to the geometric shadowing and Faraday rotation are considered simultaneously. The Langevin-like functions are employed to describe the magnetic-field-dependent volume concentration of the particle-aggregation (φ′) and the approximate number of magnetic nanoparticles in the particle-aggregation (βN0). Based on the experiments on the geometric shadowing effect of our magnetic fluid sample, the analytical expression for the total transmitted power with externally magnetic field after an analyzer is derived. Theoretical simulations disclose the influence of certain critical parameters of the magnetic fluids on the field-dependent optical transmittance. For the entire polarized light transmittance, qualitative agreement between the calculations and the experiments is achieved. Applications of magnetic fluids to several polarized devices operating in longitudinal field arrangement are proposed and discussed. The results presented in this work may be useful for designing the corresponding magnetic-fluid-based optical devices.