Dynamic magnetic birefringence in a viscoelastic ferrocolloid

A model is developed to describe the oscillations of optical anisotropy induced in a viscoelastic ferrocolloid (nanodispersion of magnetic particles) by an AC magnetic field. The viscoelasticity of the matrix (carrier medium) is assumed to obey the Jeffreys rheological scheme, whose advantage is that with the aid of just two viscous parameters and a single one for elasticity it enables one to vary the retarded mechanical response of the carrier from a weakly Maxwellian fluid to a medium with the rheology of a Kelvin gel. As the orientational motion of the particles driven by the AC field is always strongly affected by thermal motion, the occurring process is described with the aid of a kinetic (Fokker–Planck type) equation that combines diffusional and drift terms. On this basis, an exact evolution equation for the macroscopic optical anisotropy of a ferrocolloid is derived that is, however, just one link in an infinite chain of equations for statistical moments. The solution is obtained by applying effective field approximation: reducing the number of moment equations to their minimum and closing the chosen set. This solution is substituted to the scheme of a standard polarimetric set-up, and it is demonstrated how the peculiarities imparted by viscoelasticity should manifest themselves on the intensity of the light transmitted through the set up containing a ferrocolloid sample. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Transport phenomena in complex systems (part 2)’.

Shine-Through Luminescent Wood Membranes

Thanks to its optical anisotropy and mechanical properties, luminescent wood is a promising material for indoor lighting applications. However, state-of-art approaches make use of potentially toxic fluorophores and of non-biodegradable...

Naturally occurring van der Waals heterostructure lengenbachite with strong in-plane structural and optical anisotropy

Lengenbachite is a naturally occurring layered mineral formed with alternating stacks of two constituent PbS-like and M2S3-like two-dimensional (2D) material layers due to the phase segregation process during the formation. Here, we demonstrate to achieve van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures of lengenbachite down to a few layer-pair thickness by mechanical exfoliation of bulk lengenbachite mineral. The incommensurability between the constituent isotropic 2D material layers makes the formed vdW heterostructure exhibit strong in-plane structural anisotropy, which leads to highly anisotropic optical responses in lengenbachite thin flakes, including anisotropic Raman scattering, linear dichroism, and anisotropic third-harmonic generation. Moreover, we exploit the nonlinear optical anisotropy for polarization-dependent intensity modulation of the converted third-harmonic optical vortices. Our study establishes lengenbachite as a new natural vdW heterostructure-based 2D material with unique optical properties for realizing anisotropic optical devices for photonic integrated circuits and optical information processing.

Mathematical Modeling of Electrical Conductivity of Anisotropic Nanocomposite with Periodic Structure

Composite materials consisting of a dielectric matrix with conductive inclusions are promising in the field of micro- and optoelectronics. The properties of a nanocomposite material are strongly influenced by the characteristics of the substances included in its composition, as well as the shape and size of inclusions and the orientation of particles in the matrix. The use of nanocomposite material has significantly expanded and covers various systems. The anisotropic form of inclusions is the main reason for the appearance of optical anisotropy. In this article, models and methods describing the electrical conductivity of a layered nanocomposite of a self-similar structure are proposed. The method of modeling the electrical conductivity of individual blocks, layers, and composite as a whole is carried out similarly to the method of determining the dielectric constant. The advantage of the method proposed in this paper is the removal of restrictions imposed on the theory of generalized conductivity associated with the need to set the dielectric constant.