Magnetically anisometric particles

Finally, magnetic nanowires and other submicrometer-scale anisometric particles can also be manipulated and organized via controlled spatial variations in the alignment of nematic liquid crystals. Leheny and co-workers, for example, measured the elastic forces imposed on anisotropic Ni nanowires suspended in a nematic liquid crystal (here 5CB, Fig. 13a), and showed that by applying a magnetic field the nanowire reorients and distorts the director in the adjacent area [445, 446]. 

Fig. 43 Anisotropic swelling of magnetite-loaded mPDMS in cyclohexane. The arrows indicate the direction of the magnetic field (particle chains) during the preparation. The numbers in figure represent the lengths that were used to calculate the anisometric quotient...

The ability of anisotropic and anisometric particles to assume some co-orientation in external force fields is not only responsible for significant changes in scattering properties but also causes birefringence (double refraction), i.e., the average refractive indexes of two beams polarized in perpendicular planes happen to be different. The specific orientation of particles and birefringecne may be caused by the action of electric field (Kerr effect), magnetic field (Cotton-Mouton effect), or in the case of anisotropic particles by flow of medium (Maxwell effect) [25]. 

---