Research on the microstructure and transmission characteristics of magnetic fluids film based on the Monte Carlo method

Magnetic fluid is a new popular functional material, which is a new kind of stable colloid. The optical properties of the magnetic fluids have been studied widely by experiments. The theoretical research, however, on the microstructure and transmission characteristics of magnetic fluids is still ongoing. In this paper the Monte Carlo method was adopted to construct the model of the magnetic fluid and to simulate the microstructure and the transmission of the magnetic fluids film. The experimental setup to record the microstructure of the magnetic fluid was especially designed with a water-cooling system, which could ensure that the environmental temperature would not vary when the magnetic field was applied. Theoretical simulations and experiments of the magnetic fluid films with thicknesses of 8 mu m and 10 mu m under an external magnetic field of different strength were carried out. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method in this paper was feasible and could be well used in the study for optical properties of the magnetic fluids. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.