Herein, we present an investigation on the origin of the magnetically induced optical transmission of composite films comprised of polydimethylsiloxane and magnetic nanofillers via experiment and simulation. Structured and unstructured films were used in the study, which were fabricated with and without magnetic fields, respectively. Altered optical transmittance was observed from both types of films when they were subjected to an external magnetic field. Numerical analyses were performed to investigate the effect of the particle movement under magnetic field and the film magnetostriction on the film optical transmittance. The simulation results show that the changed light transmission under magnetic field is mainly due to a variation in the film thickness resulting from the film magnetostriction. The ellipsometric analysis results confirm the altered film thickness in response to the external magnetic field, and the measurements of the film magnetostrictive stresses validate that there is magnetostriction in the magnetic composite films. Additionally, it is indicated that there might be some relationship between the magnetically induced optical transmission and the film magnetostrictive stress under certain conditions.
Keywords: magnetic films; magnetostriction; nanocomposite; optical transmission.