Effect of a change in the optical density of a magnetic emulsion in electric and magnetic fields

Abstract

The change in the optical density of an emulsion of magnetic fluid drops suspended in a mineral oil under the action of electric and magnetic fields has been investigated. It is found that the sign of the change in transparency in an ac electric field depends on the field frequency. It is shown that, joint action of codirectional low-frequency electric and dc magnetic fields can compensate for the change in the optical density. Calculation of the change in the emulsion optical density within the anomalous diffraction approximation showed that this effect can be explained by small field-induced deformation of microdrops.