4/29/24, 3:07 PM Anisotropy - Wikipedia

Anisotropy
Anisotropy (/ˌænaɪˈsɒtrəpi, ˌænɪ-/) is the structural
property of non-uniformity in different directions, as
opposed to isotropy. An anisotropic object or pattern
has properties that differ according to direction of
measurement. For example, many materials exhibit
very different physical or mechanical properties when
measured along different axes, e.g. absorbance,
refractive index, conductivity, and tensile strength.
WMAP image of the (extremely tiny) anisotropies
An example of anisotropy is light coming through a in the cosmic microwave background radiation
polarizer. Another is wood, which is easier to split
along its grain than across it because of the directional
non-uniformity of the grain (the grain is the same in one direction, not all directions).

Fields of interest

Computer graphics
In the field of computer graphics, an anisotropic surface changes in appearance as it rotates about its
geometric normal, as is the case with velvet.

Anisotropic filtering (AF) is a method of enhancing the image quality of textures on surfaces that are
far away and steeply angled with respect to the point of view. Older techniques, such as bilinear and
trilinear filtering, do not take into account the angle a surface is viewed from, which can result in
aliasing or blurring of textures. By reducing detail in one direction more than another, these effects
can be reduced easily.

Chemistry
A chemical anisotropic filter, as used to filter particles, is a filter with increasingly smaller interstitial
spaces in the direction of filtration so that the proximal regions filter out larger particles and distal
regions increasingly remove smaller particles, resulting in greater flow-through and more efficient
filtration.

In fluorescence spectroscopy, the fluorescence anisotropy, calculated from the polarization properties
of fluorescence from samples excited with plane-polarized light, is used, e.g., to determine the shape
of a macromolecule. Anisotropy measurements reveal the average angular displacement of the
fluorophore that occurs between absorption and subsequent emission of a photon.

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In NMR spectroscopy, the orientation of nuclei with respect to the applied magnetic field determines
their chemical shift. In this context, anisotropic systems refer to the electron distribution of molecules
with abnormally high electron density, like the pi system of benzene. This abnormal electron density
affects the applied magnetic field and causes the observed chemical shift to change.

Real-world imagery
Images of a gravity-bound or man-made environment are particularly anisotropic in the orientation
domain, with more image structure located at orientations parallel with or orthogonal to the direction
of gravity (vertical and horizontal).

Physics
Physicists from University of California, Berkeley
reported about their detection of the cosmic anisotropy
in cosmic microwave background radiation in 1977.
Their experiment demonstrated the Doppler shift
caused by the movement of the earth with respect to
the early Universe matter, the source of the
radiation.[1] Cosmic anisotropy has also been seen in
the alignment of galaxies' rotation axes and
polarization angles of quasars.

Physicists use the term anisotropy to describe

direction-dependent properties of materials. Magnetic
anisotropy, for example, may occur in a plasma, so that
its magnetic field is oriented in a preferred direction.
Plasmas may also show "filamentation" (such as that
seen in lightning or a plasma globe) that is directional. A plasma globe displaying the nature of plasmas,
in this case, the phenomenon of "filamentation"
An anisotropic liquid has the fluidity of a normal
liquid, but has an average structural order relative to
each other along the molecular axis, unlike water or chloroform, which contain no structural ordering
of the molecules. Liquid crystals are examples of anisotropic liquids.

Some materials conduct heat in a way that is isotropic, that is independent of spatial orientation
around the heat source. Heat conduction is more commonly anisotropic, which implies that detailed
geometric modeling of typically diverse materials being thermally managed is required. The materials
used to transfer and reject heat from the heat source in electronics are often anisotropic.[2]

Many crystals are anisotropic to light ("optical anisotropy"), and exhibit properties such as
birefringence. Crystal optics describes light propagation in these media. An "axis of anisotropy" is
defined as the axis along which isotropy is broken (or an axis of symmetry, such as normal to
crystalline layers). Some materials can have multiple such optical axes.

Geophysics and geology

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Seismic anisotropy is the variation of seismic wavespeed with direction. Seismic anisotropy is an
indicator of long range order in a material, where features smaller than the seismic wavelength (e.g.,
crystals, cracks, pores, layers, or inclusions) have a dominant alignment. This alignment leads to a
directional variation of elasticity wavespeed. Measuring the effects of anisotropy in seismic data can
provide important information about processes and mineralogy in the Earth; significant seismic
anisotropy has been detected in the Earth's crust, mantle, and inner core.

Geological formations with distinct layers of sedimentary material can exhibit electrical anisotropy;
electrical conductivity in one direction (e.g. parallel to a layer), is different from that in another (e.g.
perpendicular to a layer). This property is used in the gas and oil exploration industry to identify
hydrocarbon-bearing sands in sequences of sand and shale. Sand-bearing hydrocarbon assets have
high resistivity (low conductivity), whereas shales have lower resistivity. Formation evaluation
instruments measure this conductivity or resistivity, and the results are used to help find oil and gas
in wells. The mechanical anisotropy measured for some of the sedimentary rocks like coal and shale
can change with corresponding changes in their surface properties like sorption when gases are
produced from the coal and shale reservoirs.[3]

The hydraulic conductivity of aquifers is often anisotropic for the same reason. When calculating
groundwater flow to drains[4] or to wells,[5] the difference between horizontal and vertical
permeability must be taken into account; otherwise the results may be subject to error.

Most common rock-forming minerals are anisotropic, including quartz and feldspar. Anisotropy in
minerals is most reliably seen in their optical properties. An example of an isotropic mineral is garnet.

Igneous rock like granite also shows the anisotropy due to the orientation of the minerals during the
solidification process.[6]

Medical acoustics
Anisotropy is also a well-known property in medical ultrasound imaging describing a different
resulting echogenicity of soft tissues, such as tendons, when the angle of the transducer is changed.
Tendon fibers appear hyperechoic (bright) when the transducer is perpendicular to the tendon, but
can appear hypoechoic (darker) when the transducer is angled obliquely. This can be a source of
interpretation error for inexperienced practitioners.

Materials science and engineering

Anisotropy, in materials science, is a material's directional dependence of a physical property. This is
a critical consideration for materials selection in engineering applications. A material with physical
properties that are symmetric about an axis that is normal to a plane of isotropy is called a
transversely isotropic material. Tensor descriptions of material properties can be used to determine
the directional dependence of that property. For a monocrystalline material, anisotropy is associated
with the crystal symmetry in the sense that more symmetric crystal types have fewer independent
coefficients in the tensor description of a given property.[7][8] When a material is polycrystalline, the
directional dependence on properties is often related to the processing techniques it has undergone. A

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