Optical response of composite materials: comparison of different approaches

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

París

Simposio; Advanced Electromagnetics Symposium 2012; 2012

Advanced Electromagnetics Symposium

We consider a composite material comprising periodically distributed metallic spheres in a dielectric host matrix. Two different approaches are used to obtain the electromagneticresponse of such a medium: the Korringa-Kohn- Rostoker (KKR) wave calculation method and the effective non-retarded method (ENR), which permits to calculate the macroscopic response of the composite medium. The reflectance and transmittance of a slab made of such a nanomaterial are obtained for various thicknesses and for different filling fractions. The results are also compared with those obtained with the Maxwell-Garnett approximation(MG). To investigate the validity ranges of the effective medium approximation, we compare reflectance and transmittance curves of simple cubic lattices for different valuesof the lattice constant. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are highlighted, and estimates of the corresponding limits of validity are given.