A Maxwell Garnett model for dielectric mixtures containing conducting particles at optical frequencies

Abstract

Mathematical modeling of composites made of a dielectric base and randomly oriented metal inclusions is considered. Different sources of frequency-dependent metal conductivity at optical frequencies are taken into account. These include the skin-effect, dimensional (length-size) resonance of metal particles, and the Drude model. Also, the mean free path of electrons in metals can be smaller than the characteristic sizes of nanoparticles, and this leads to the decrease in conductivity of the metal inclusions. These effects are incorporated in the Maxwell Garnett mixing formulation, and give degrees of freedom for forming desirable optical frequency characteristics of composite media containing conducting particles.