ON THE CONCENTRATION AND WAVELENGTH DEPENDENCE OF THE DEGREE OF POLARIZATION IN MAGNETIC FLUIDS

The concentration and wavelength dependence of the degree of polarizat ion of light at room temperature in diluted Fe3O4 particle magnetic fl uids has been investigated. The volumic fraction epsilon of the sample s investigated ranged from 0.548 to 10.36 x 10(-3). The range of wavel engths lambda used in this study was 366-905 nm. Applied measuring mag netic fields up to 8 k Oe were used. For a given concentration, the de gree of polarization, D, increases rapidly with the field at low field s, then less rapidly at intermediate fields, and tends to saturate at high fields. Also, D increases with increasing concentration. The resu lts also show that the degree of polarization increases with frequency at low frequencies (in the optical region), reaching a maximum at sim ilar to nu=6 x 10(14) Hz, and then decreases for higher frequencies.