Exploring the Polarization of Light in Ferrofluids with Mueller Matrices

Abstract

We studied the polarization of light in a thin film of ferrofluid subjected to a magnetic field using the Mueller matrix formalism. By observing the results of some experiments, we relate the observed light patterns with Stokes vectors that can be operated by Mueller matrices, which represent the magnetic field applied to the sample. We observed that the changes in the dichroism of this system can be monitored along the sample, allowing for the visualization of magneto-optical effects mainly for linear polarized light, and the effects of circular polarized light are related to birefringence.

Keywords

• Mueller matrix
• Stokes vector
• polarization
• isogyres
• ferrofluid
• magneto-optics