Electrooptical effect by aerosil suspension

The electrooptic investigations carried out on suspensions of spherical isotropic particles (aerosil 0 × 50) of diameter 500 A demonstrate the existence of reproducible effects in a wide interval of conditions of preparation and measurement. The observed effects are interpreted as an indication of the presence of anisodiametric particles the latter being aggregates of 12 spheres. The comparison of the data, obtained by the value of the electrooptic effect on one hand and by the velocity of the field-free decay of the effect on the other, shows that not more than 10% of the initial particle number is presented by single spheres. The importance is discussed of the model “chain” of spherical particles for the electrooptic investigations and for the study of the interaction between disperse particles.