Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Nonlinear optical response of colloidal suspensions
W M Lee1, R El-Ganainy, D N Christodoulides
1SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom. wml6@st-andrews.ac.uk
Abstract:
We experimentally probed the nonlinear optical response of aqueous nano-colloidal suspensions to provide a test of the theoretical approaches that have been proposed for the nonlinearity, namely an exponential model, an artificial Kerr medium, and a non-ideal gas model. The best agreement with experiment is found using the non-ideal gas model for the colloidal suspension which in turn can be used to infer values for the second virial coefficient of the medium and the nonlinear coefficients.
Related Concept Videos
Colloids
The Colloidal State
Colloids and Suspensions
Colloidal precipitates

