Highly birefringent colloidal particles for tracer studies

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Abstract
We report on the preparation and characterization of highl yb irefringent, monodisperse colloidal particles with sizes between 100 nm and some micrometres made by emulsification o fa reactive acrylate monomer in aqueous solution. Photopolymerizatio no ft he emulsion droplets in the liquid crystalline state results in particles with frozen orientational order. Particles that had not been polymerized have a higher effective birefringence than the polymerized particles at room temperature, as show nb y measurements of the depolarized scattering intensity using quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS). We also present preliminary results showing that larger particles can be made to rotate with optical tweezers with circular polarization.