Electro-optical properties of suspensions of anisotropic particles

Liquid suspensions of microellipsoids exhibit a variety of nonlinear optical and electro-optical phenomena based on the reorientation of the particles by an applied electric field. The magnitude of these effects is determined by the concentration of the particles, their intrinsic dielectric anisotropy and their shape. An extension of the Maxwell Garnett approximation for suspensions of anisotropic particles provides an explicit link between the particle properties, their orientation distribution and the effective properties of the suspensions. It reproduces experimental observations and should be useful for studying electro-optical properties as well as reorientation phenomena in these systems. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.