Optical absorption by small metallic particles

We study theoretically the dependence of absorption by small metallic particles on particle shape and wave polarization in the IR frequency range. We examine the electric and magnetic absorption by small particles. The particles may be either larger or smaller than the electron mean free path. We show that for asymmetric particles smaller than the mean free path the light-induced conductivity is a tensor. We also show that the total absorption and the electric-to-magnetic absorption ratio are strongly dependent on particle shape and wave polarization. Finally, we construct curves representing the dependence of the ratio of the electric and magnetic contributions to absorption on the degree of particle asymmetry for different wave polarizations. Similar curves are constructed for the ratio of the components of the light-induced conductivity tensor. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 661–678 (August 1997)     

The nanoparticle shape's effect on the light scattering cross-section

In the framework of kinetic approach we develop a theory for light scattering by ellipsoidal metallic nanoparticles whose dimensions are less than those of a free electron path. In this case, the surface of the particle starts to play a dominant role in electron scattering. When the size of the particle decreases below the free electron path at least in one direction, the optical conductivity becomes a tensor quantity, and the diagonal components of this tensor define the half-widths of the plasmon resonances peaks. Thus, the effect of the particles' shape both on the frequencies of plasmon resonances and on their half-widths is considered. Additionally, the expression for a cross-section of the light scattering by a collection of chaotically oriented spheroidal nanoparticles is obtained and averaged over different directions of particles in the collection. Our results highlight the plasmonic properties of metallic nanospheroids, notably, the spectrum of the light scattering has two peaks at the frequencies of plasmon resonances even if there is no preferential direction in the collection of particles.     

Multi-scattering of electromagnetic waves by nanoshell aggregates

A general analytical expression is derived for calculating the total scattering cross-section of an aggregate of nanoparticles. The approach is based on the far zone approximation and repeated use of recursive relations for Bessel functions and Legendre polynomials. In comparison with the existing formula for total scattering cross-section, the expression converges faster and makes it easier to analyze the terms that characterize the interactive coupling between nanoparticles during multiple scattering of electromagnetic waves. The expressions are valid for particle aggregates in which no two particles are in direct contact. Calculated results compare well with measurements for a nanoshell dimer. For a linear chain of particles with the chain axis parallel to the polarization direction of the electric field, analysis shows that the red-shift of resonance peaks results primarily from electrons in metal shells of two adjacent particles oscillating out-of-phase to cancel each other’s radiation effects. Multi-scattering in aggregates with more complex arrangements may be explained by combining the effects of linear particle chains.     

Bistatic electromagnetic scattering from a three-dimensional perfect electric conducting object above a Gaussian rough surface based on the Kirchhoff–Helmholtz and electric field integral equation

A hybrid integral equation is developed to solve the problem of electromagnetic (EM) scattering from a three-dimensional (3D) perfect electric conducting (PEC) object above a two-dimensional (2D) PEC or dielectric Gaussian rough surface. Firstly, the Kirchhoff–Helmholtz (KH) equation is adopted to describe the wave reflection on the rough surface; only one integral operation on the rough surface is needed, and the scattering from the object can be described by solving the electric field integral equation (EFIE) on the surface of the object. Moreover, according to scattering theory, the KH equation and the EFIE are coupled together (KH-EFIE) to describe wave propagation between the object and the rough surface. Then method of moments (MoM) is adopted to solve the KH-EFIE, and the current is obtained to calculate the scattering field. Finally, compared with other methods, the accuracy of the proposed approach is validated, and its efficiency is proved to be much higher than numerical solutions. Furthermore, by calculating the statistic composite radar cross-section (RCS) of the object/surface and the difference radar cross-section (DRCS) of the object, the influence of the rough surface root mean square (rms) height, the correlation length, the medium permittivity, the shape of the object, and the altitude of the object on the scattering characteristic is investigated.     

电场辅助溶解法实现玻璃表面金纳米粒子的形貌控制

贵金属纳米粒子由于其非常独特的光学特性和表面活性, 在光子学、 催化和生物标识等方面都有非常重要的应用. 采用离子溅射和后续热处理相结合的方法在玻璃表面形成了尺寸大约为60-80 nm的单分散的球形金纳米粒子. 在适当的温度条件下, 采用步进式增加的强直流电场, 实现了金纳米粒子的电场辅助溶解过程. 在玻璃表面的不同颜色区域, 初始球形的金纳米粒子溶解成月蚀状形貌. 结合不同颜色区域内金纳米粒子的表面等离子体共振吸收性质和扫描电镜照片, 研究了实验条件对金纳米粒子性质的影响. 结合电场辅助溶解实验过程中的电流-电压特性, 分析了金纳米粒子在强直流电场辅助下溶解的物理过程: 金粒子中动出的电子向阳极的隧穿过程作为开始, 随后是金阳离子向玻璃基体中的传输过程和阴极提供的电子与带有正电荷的金粒子相结合的过程. 详细讨论了电场辅助溶解法实现金纳米粒子形貌控制的物理机制.     

Composites of resonant dielectric rods: A test of their behavior as metamaterial refractive elements

We report numerical experiments of optical wave propagation in composites of high refractive index dielectric rods at frequencies where their first electric and magnetic Mie resonances are excited. The arrays of these particles have been extensively studied and proposed as non-absorbing and isotropic metamaterials. We show that negative refraction, observed in such ordered particle arrays, is due to diffraction and that an effective medium theory (EMT) yields constitutive parameters that do not reproduce the observations in these composites, whose transmission also depends on the sample shape. This is further confirmed by disordering the arrays, a case in which large transmission losses appear due to extinction by resonant scattering from the particles. Therefore, these composites, although having little absorption, give rise to large extinction due to scattering and do not constitute an improvement, as low loss refractive elements, upon all previously designed highly absorbing metamaterials.     

Hybrid computer simulations: electrical charging of dust particles in low-temperature plasma

This paper is focused on the study of the electrical charging process of micron-sized particles immersed into low-temperature argon plasma by the methods of computer modelling. The hybrid computer simulations are performed for a set of particles with the radius up to in order to determine the dependence of the electric charge on the surface of the particulate on its radius. This dependence seems to be linear. The distribution of the electric potential in the vicinity of the particulate is obtained from the fluid model. Afterwards, the non self-consistent particle simulation is performed in order to determine both the reaction rates and the electric charge on the surface of the particulate. The most important collision processes of charged particles in plasma and the appropriate dependence of the collision cross-section on the particle energy are considered (elastic scattering of electrons on neutrals, excitation of neutrals into all important energetic states, ionisation of Argon atoms by fast electrons, elastic scattering of positively charged ions etc.). The presented algorithm provides an effective way, how the key quantity in dusty plasma physics – electric charge on the surface of the particulate – can be determined.     

Angular dependence of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering: a spherical tensor expansion

A spherical tensor expansion is carried out to express the resonant inelastic scattering cross-section as a sum of products of fundamental spectra with tensors involving wavevectors and polarization vectors of incident and scattered photons. The expression presented in this paper differs from that of the influential article by Carra et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 3700, 1995) because it does not omit interference terms between electric dipole and quadrupole contributions when coupling each photon to itself. Some specific cases of the spherical tensor expansion are discussed. For example the case of isotropic samples is considered and the cross-section is expressed as a combination of only three fundamental spectra for the situation where electric dipole or electric quadrupole transitions in the absorption process are followed by electric dipole transitions in the emission. This situation includes the case of untextured powder samples, which corresponds to the most frequent situation met experimentally. Finally, it is predicted that some circular dichroism may be observed on isotropic samples provided that the circular polarization of the scattered beam can be detected.     

雷达波段内磁性吸波颗粒光散射特性分析

针对目前在微波雷达隐身技术中广泛运用的吸波材料颗粒,根据米氏(Mie)散射理论对磁性吸波颗粒在雷达波段内的光散射特性进行了数值模拟和计算分析.在Mie系数中引入磁导率变量,分别计算了磁导率、折射率及颗粒粒径等参数对吸波颗粒光散射特性的影响;同时对比分析了磁性与非磁性吸波颗粒的散射光强、散射系数、吸收系数等散射特性规律.数值计算结果表明,颗粒磁特性的变化对其散射性能造成影响,磁导率的增大将使颗粒的吸收性能增强而后向散射强度减弱,有利于吸波颗粒雷达散射截面的减小,同时磁导率变化对颗粒散射特性的影响受到复折射率的制约.     

On the influence of anisotropy on the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering of superparamagnetic particles

This paper presents a calculation of the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering cross-section resulting from a dilute ensemble of superparamagnetic particles exhibiting uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. We focus on the two experimentally relevant scattering geometries in which the incident neutron beam is perpendicular or parallel to an applied magnetic field, and we discuss several orientations of the anisotropy axes with respect to the field. Magnetic anisotropy has no influence on the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering when the particles are mobile, as is the case e.g. in ferrofluids, but, when the particles are embedded in a rigid non-magnetic matrix and the orientations of the anisotropy axes are fixed, significant deviations compared to the case of negligible anisotropy are expected. For the particluar situation in which the anisotropy axes are parallel to the applied field, closed-form expressions suggest that an effective anisotropy energy or anisotropy-energy distribution can be determined from experimental scattering data. Received 8 November 2001     

Resonance radiation in electromagnetic wave scattering by a fast electron in the external magnetic field

The resonance radiation in Compton scattering of an electromagnetic wave by a fast relativistic electron moving in a given magnetic field is investigated with allowance for deceleration by the radiation. A general expression for the electric field of an arbitrarily polarized scattered wave is derived within the framework of small-perturbation theory. It is shown that the resonance peak in the scattering cross-section is caused by the small radiation friction. The dependence of the resonance line width on the characteristic parameters of the problem is examined. The scattering of a given polarized wave is considered, and the degree of linear polarization of the radiated wave under resonance is determined.Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics, Armenian Academy of Sciences, Erevan. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 38, No. 10, pp. 1001–1011, October, 1995.     

Electric and magnetic optical response of dielectric nanospheres: Optical forces and scattering anisotropy

Nanospheres made of non-magnetic materials are shown to present non-conventional scattering properties similar to those previously reported for somewhat hypothetical magnetodielectric particles. We find a wide window in the near-infrared, where light scattering by lossless submicrometer semiconductor nanospheres is fully described by their induced electric and magnetic dipoles. The interference between electric and magnetic dipolar fields is shown to lead to anisotropic angular distributions of scattered intensity, including zero backward and almost zero forward scattered intensities at specific wavelengths. Interesting new consequences for the corresponding optical forces are derived from the interplay, both in and out of resonance, between the electric- and magnetic-induced dipoles.     

Effect of electric field on light scattering by aqueous colloids of diamond and graphite

We present the results of our experimental investigation of light scattering by polydisperse colloids of diamond and graphite. The scattering is studied at a random orientation of particles and in an external radiofrequency electric field, which orients particles along the strength. The average dimensions of particles in both colloids are close to each other and comparable with the wavelength of the incident light. The shape of particles and the optical and electrooptical properties of diamond and graphite colloids are significantly different. We analyze the polarization components of scattered light energy when the light incident on the colloids is linearly polarized. We show that the quadrupole light scattering by isotropic diamond particles has the main effect on angular dependences of depolarization of scattered light. For light scattering by anisotropic graphite particles, the depolarization of scattered light is mainly determined by a particular feature of the dipole scattering of particles. It is shown that, in both colloids, the orientational order of particles considerably reduces the depolarization of light scattered by particles. We show that relative changes in the intensity and depolarization of scattered light, which depend on the scattering angle and polarization direction of light, as well as on the parameters of particles, can be used as a measure of electrooptical effects observed in colloids.     

Colloids in external electric and magnetic fields: Colloidal crystals, pinning, chain formation, and electrokinetics

The motion of dilute and concentrated dispersions of colloids by external electric or magnetic fields is discussed. Electrokinetics is studied for colloids in confinement, where the confining walls can be flat or rough. As an example for a rough wall superhydrophobic surfaces are chosen. It is shown that the reduced friction at the water-air interface is insufficient to enhance electro-osmosis. Magnetic particles are pulled through a crystalline matrix formed by nonmagnetic colloids to investigate local melting and recrystallization of a crystalline matrix. The average strain field is calculated and the reorganization processes are compared to those induced by shear fields. Using single domain, magnetically blocked particles of different shape and surface characteristics, the interplay between particles, their environment and an external field is investigated.     

Finite correction to Aharonov-Bohm scattering by a contact potential

We study the influence of a contact (or delta) potential on the Aharonov-Bohm scattering of nonrelativistic particles. In general the contact potential has no effect on the scattering as expected. However, when the magnetic flux and the strength of the contact potential take some special values, the Aharonov-Bohm scattering cross-section is manifestly changed. It is shown that these special values correspond to the simultaneous existence of two half-bound states in two adjacent angular momentum channels. Two limiting processes are presented to deal with the singularity of the contact potential and results of the same nature are obtained.     

一种基于3D打印技术的结构型宽频吸波超材料

设计了一种三层宽频吸波超材料,其表层和中间层为单元尺寸不同的周期阵列结构,底层为吸波平板结构,优化后的总厚度仅为4.7 mm,并采用三维(3D)打印技术成功制备了该吸波超材料.吸波体反射率测试结果表明,在电磁波垂直入射条件下,宽频吸收峰分别出现在5.3和14.1 GHz,两峰叠加使得其在4-18 GHz频率范围内反射损耗均小于-10 dB.采用S参数反演法计算了每一层的等效电磁参数,并利用多层结构反射率公式推导得出该模型的理论反射率,理论计算结果与实测结果基本一致.通过研究能量损耗、电场分布和磁场分布揭示了吸波机理,分析表明该吸波体的宽频吸收效果源于三层结构产生的吸收带宽叠加.本文提出的吸波超材料具有良好的宽频吸收效果,尤其在低频范围吸波性能较佳,结合3D打印快速成型技术,可获得结构精细的三层吸波超材料,具有重要的实际应用价值和广阔的应用前景.     

Scattering properties of aqueous suspensions with absorbing dispersed phase

Scattering matrices of aqueous suspensions of copper oxide and graphite the particles of which are characterized by strong absorption at a wavelength of 0.63 μm have been measured in the scattering angle range of 10°–155°. The results of the measurements are compared with calculation data for axially symmetric scatterers (ellipsoids of revolution and cylinders). It is shown that, if the size parameter equals 4–6, even under conditions of strong radiation absorption by particles of the dispersive medium, deviation of their shape from axial symmetry has an effect on the scattering properties of the medium.     

Resonances of nanocylinders with gap defects

We have investigated the plasmonic resonance characteristics of canonical circular and square cylinders, with gap defects, that are illuminated by a plane wave. The circular and square cylinders have vee shaped gaps and constant width gaps, respectively. The electric and magnetic fields are obtained by solving the Lippmann–Schwinger equation from which we compute the far-field scattering cross-section and near-field local electromagnetic energy density.Numerical results are given for numerous wavelength and gap dimensions to qualitatively present the effects of gap defects on the scattering cross-section and local electromagnetic energy density.     

Numerical simulation of Gaussian beam scattering by complex particles of arbitrary shape and structure

An efficient numerical method based on the surface integral equations is introduced to simulate the scattering of Gaussian beam by complex particles that consist of an arbitrarily shaped host particle and multiple internal inclusions of arbitrary shape. In particular, the incident focused Gaussian beam is described by the Davis fifth-order approximate expressions in combination with rotation defined by Euler angles. The established surface integral equations are discretized with the method of moments, where the unknown equivalent electric and magnetic currents induced on the surfaces of the host particle and the internal inclusions are expanded using the Rao–Wilton–Glisson (RWG) basis functions. The resultant matrix equations are solved by using the parallel conjugate gradient method. The proposed numerical method is validated and its capability illustrated in several characteristic examples.     

Metallic foams: Radiative properties/comparison between different models

The aim of this study is to determine the radiative properties, which are the extinction coefficient, the scattering albedo and the scattering phase function, of highly porous open-cell aluminium foam, using more-or-less simple predictive models, and to compare all these models. The radiative properties are predicted using geometric optics laws to model the interaction of radiation with the particles forming the foam. Moreover, the particles forming the foam are large compared with the considered wavelength and are supposed to be sufficiently distant from each other to scatter radiation independently. Thus, the radiative characteristics of the foam can be determined by adding the contributions of each particle. A particular attention is paid on microstructure analysis and modelling. We considered different kinds of cell shapes and struts cross-section, using microscopic and tomographic analysis. Furthermore, a new phase function modelling is presented. Finally, we compare the results of each method with the radiative properties obtained from experimental measurements of directional and hemispherical transmittances and hemispherical reflectance.