Optics composite media

We now want to study the consequences of such a model with respect to the optical properties of a composite medium. For such a purpose, we will consider the phenomenological Lorentz-Drude model, based on the classical dispersion theory, in order to describe qualitatively the various components [20]. Therefore, a Drude term defined by the plasma frequency and scattering rate, will describe the optical response of the bulk metal or will define the intrinsic metallic properties (i.e., Zm((a) in Eq.(6)) of the small particles, while a harmonic Lorentz oscillator, defined by the resonance frequency, the damping and the mode strength parameters, will describe the insulating host (i.e., /((0) in Eq.(6)). 

Whatever the degree of approximation used in evaluating the effective nonlinear susceptibility of a composite medium, it can be seen in Eqs. (22), (23) or (27) that the result depends on the product of two complex quantities One linked with the medium morphology and composition (the local field factor), the other linked with the nonlinear optical properties of the metal inclusions themselves (the intrinsic third-order susceptibility, Xm ) - inasmuch as the own contribution of the host matrix to the whole nonlinear response still remains negligible. We will focus here on the second factor. It is noteworthy that very few theoretical work has been accomplished regarding the value of Xm for noble metal nanoparticles after the pioneering smdies of Flytzanis and coworkers [79, 80, 89, 90]. Moreover, as will be underlined below, their results may not be used in every experimental situation as they are. 

One of the main consequences of dielectric confinement for the third-order nonlinear optical properties is the fact that the response of a composite medium can be very different in both sign and magnitude from the one of its constituents [73, 89, 94]. 

Taking into account the electromagnetic coupling of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), the low-frequency surface wave of the finite CNT bundle is analyzed. Geometric resonances of surface wave emerge and can be used for the qualitative interpretation of experimentally observed features in the optical response of CNT bundle-based composite mediums. 

An optically isotropic liquid crystal (LC) refers to a composite material system whose refractive index is isotropic macroscopically, yet its dielectric constant remains anisotropic microscopically [1]. When such a material is subject to an external electric field, induced birefringence takes place along the electric field direction if the employed LC host has a positive dielectric anisotropy (Ae). This optically isotropic medium is different from a polar Uquid crystal in an isotropic state, such as 5CB (clearing point = 35.4°C) at 50 C. The latter is not switchable because its dielectric anisotropy and optical anisotropy (birefringence) both vanish in the isotropic phase. Blue phase, which exists between cholesteric and isotropic phases, is an example of optically isotropic media. 

An effective medium approximation (EMA) has been applied to determine the optical constant of amorphous carbon where the entire film is considered as a composite heterogeneous medium of amorphous diamond-like carbon, amorphous graphite polymeric carbon, and voids. The EMA expression for the dielectric function e, of the composite medium can be expressed as... 

When light traversing an optically dense medium approaches an interface with a more optically rare medium at an angle exceeding a critical value, Bent = sin (rerare/ dens), total internal reflection occurs and an evanescent wave of exponentially deca5ung intensity penetrates the rarer medium. This phenomenon is at the heart of certain spectroscopic methods used to probe biomolecules at interfaces (199). In total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) spectroscopy (200-202), the evanescent wave excites fluorescent probes attached to the biomolecules, and detection of the emission associated with their decay provides information on the density, composition, and conformation of adsorbed molecules. In fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATIR) spectroscopy (203,204), the evanescent wave excites certain molecular vibrational degrees of freedom, and the detected loss in intensity due to these absorbances can provide quantitative data on density, composition, and conformation. 

A theoretical approach of such Boson peaks is developed, for example, in Refs. 55 and 56 (see Fig. 37). One important characteristic of the Boson peaks is that their spectral profile is universal in the sense that it does not depend on the composition of the glass, the polarization of the light, or the temperature [57], as shown in Fig. 38 in reduced intensity and reduced wave-vector scales. However, these low-lying peaks may not be due purely to acousticlike states localized optical states, medium-range-order effects, and so forth may coexist in the same frequency range and be revealed by Raman scattering. 

An essential part of the electro-optic effect in PSFLCs depends on the dielectric response of the medium. Assuming the composite medium to be subjected to a constant isotropic dielectric constant, we have... 

It is therefore important to bear in mind the dependency of the carotenoid spectrum upon properties of the environment for in vivo analysis, which is based on the application of optical spectroscopies. This approach is often the only way to study the composition, structure, and biological functions of carotenoids. Spectral sensitivity of xanthophylls to the medium could be a property to use for gaining vital information on their binding sites and dynamics. The next sections will provide a brief introduction to the structure of the environment with which photosynthetic xanthophylls interact—light harvesting antenna complexes (LHC). 

Initially, the sol gel compositions were optimized using Congo red dye as the dopant because of its optical properties. This facilitates monitoring of the release process by optical spectroscopy. Next, the gels were evaluated for their stabilization and release of subtilisin. These sol gel matrices bring about controlled release of the encapsulated enzyme molecules as a response to a change in the water content of the medium (Figure 2.20).15... 

The notion of homogeneity is not absolute all substances are inhomogeneous upon sufficiently close inspection. Thus, the description of the interaction of an electromagnetic wave with any medium by means of a spatially uniform dielectric function is ultimately statistical, and its validity requires that the constituents—whatever their nature—be small compared with the wavelength. It is for this reason that the optical properties of media usually considered to be homogeneous—pure liquids, for example—are adequately described to first approximation by a dielectric function. There is no sharp distinction between such molecular media and those composed of small particles each of which contains sufficiently many molecules that they can be individually assigned a bulk dielectric function we may consider the particles to be giant molecules with polarizabilities determined by their composition and shape. 

This is the form of the scattering matrix for any medium with rotational symmetry even if all the particles are not identical in shape and composition. A collection of optically active spheres is perhaps the simplest example of a particulate medium which is symmetric under all rotations but not under reflection. Mirror asymmetry in a collection of randomly oriented particles can arise either from the shape of the particles (corkscrews, for example) or from optical activity (circular birefringence and circular dichroism). 

Quantitative simulation of spectra as outlined above is complicated for particle films. The material within the volume probed by the evanescent field is heterogeneous, composed of solvent entrapped in the void space, support material, and active catalyst, for example a metal. If the particles involved are considerably smaller than the penetration depth of the IR radiation, the radiation probes an effective medium. Still, in such a situation the formalism outlined above can be applied. The challenge is associated with the determination of the effective optical constants of the composite layer. Effective medium theories have been developed, such as Maxwell-Garnett 61, Bruggeman 62, and other effective medium theories 63, which predict the optical constants of a composite layer. Such theories were applied to metal-particle thin films on IREs to predict enhanced IR absorption within such films. The results were in qualitative agreement with experiment 30. However, quantitative results of these theories depend not only on the bulk optical constants of the materials (which in most cases are known precisely), but also critically on the size and shape (aspect ratio) of the metal particles and the distance between them. Accurate information of this kind is seldom available for powder catalysts. 

A plot of the optical absorbance at 260 nm (the wavelength of maximum light absorption by nucleic acids) versus temperature is known as a melting curve (Fig. 5-45). The absorbance is lower, by up to 40%, for native than for denatured nucleic acids. This hypochromic effect (Chapter 23) is a result of the interaction between the closely stacked bases in the helices of the native molecules. The melting temperature Tm is taken as the midpoint of the increase in absorbance (Fig. 5-45). As the percentage of G + C increases, the nucleic acid becomes more stable toward denaturation because of the three hydrogen bonds in each GC pair. Tm increases almost linearly with increases in the G + C content. In the "standard" citrate buffer (0.15 M NaCl + 0.015 M sodium citrate, pH 7.0) Eq. 5-22 holds. The exact numerical relationship depends strongly upon the ionic composition and pH of the medium.37 72 552 553... 

In these density profiles the latex particles, added before starting the experiment, migrate to that position in the cell where their density coincides with the density of the surrounding medium. The position of the particles can be recorded by schlieren optics or, if there is a particle density distribution, more precisely by scanning extinction measurements normally used for the characterization of proteins. Thus the density and extinction profile in the ultracentrifugation cell yield a criterion for the density distribution and hence, because of the correlation between chemical composition and particle density, a criterion for the composition distribution or heterogeneity of the latex particles. 

There has been some conceptual disagreement in the definition and interpretation of optical cross sections of small particles when the surrounding medium absorbs radiation (Bohren and Gilra, 1979 Lebedev et al., 1999 Mundy et al. 1974). Recently, an operational point of view has been adopted, which allows to carry out calculations for composite... 

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