Coherent light scattering on nanofluids: computer simulation results

If coherent light is incident on a suspension containing nanoparticles, they act as scattering centers and the result of the far-field interference is a speckled image. The scattering centers have a complex movement of both sedimentation and Brownian motion. Consequently the speckle image is not static but presents time fluctuations. A computer code to simulate the dynamics of the coherent light scattering on nanofluids was written, tested, and used to calculate the far-field intensity variation for nanofluids having different particle size. The results are discussed and an alternative experimental method for fast nanoparticle size assessing is suggested as a possible application. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.