Optical response of composite materials: comparison of different approaches

GUILLERMO ORTIZ; MARINA INCHAUSSANDAGUE; DIANA SKIGIN; RICARDO DEPINE; LUIS MOCHÁN

Proceedings of the Advanced Electromagnetics Symposium

AES

Año: 2012 p. 356 - 361

2119-0275

We consider a composite material comprising periodicallydistributed metallic spheres in a dielectric host matrix. Weinvestigate the capabilities of the effective non-retardedmethod (ENR) to reproduce the reflectance/transmittanceof an inhomogeneous slab made of such a material. First,the effective dielectric function of the composite mediumis obtained using the ENR approach, and it is introducedinto the Fresnel coefficients to calculate the reflectance/transmittance of the slab. This response is comparedwith that obtained with the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker(KKR) wave calculation method for various thicknessesand for different filling fractions. Within this framework,we calculate the electromagnetic response of a slab of agiven thickness for different values of the lattice constant.As this value decreases, the KKR results approach thosegiven by effective medium theories, as is to expect becausein this case the long wavelength condition is better fulfilled.