https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-31055-y
Regular Article
Optical properties of a metalo-dielectric nanocomposite: small gold spherical nanoparticles in a cylindrical di-block copolymer
1
Department of Physics, Shahid Bahonar University,
76169-133
Kerman,
Iran
2
Department of Physics, Sharif University of
Technology, 11365-11155
Tehran,
Iran
3
CNR SPIN and Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Facoltà di
Ingegneria, Università di Napoli Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125
Napoli,
Italy
a
e-mail: Askari.s.ali@gmail.com
b
e-mail: gpepe@na.infn.it
Received: 13 November 2012
Received in final form: 15 January 2013
Published online: 10 April 2013
In this paper, the well-known effective medium approximation (EMA) and coupled dipole approximation (CDA) methods are employed to study the optical properties of a metal nanoparticle-block copolymer (MNP-BCP) nanocomposite. This approach is applied to study a system consisting of small gold spherical nanoparticles randomly distributed in the cylindrical micelles of a di-BCP. At first, the EMA method is used to obtain the effective dielectric function of a semi-metallic cylinder. Then, the extinction spectrum of the hexagonal 2D-array of semi-metallic cylinders is obtained by the CDA method. This procedure makes it possible to study simultaneously both the electromagnetic extinction of MNPs and incident light scattering from the 2D-array of polymeric cylinders. This work investigates the effect of different parameters such as filling fraction of MNPs, inter-cylinder distances, polarization and direction of the incident light and the difference between the refractive indices of the BCP blocks on the optical properties of the MNP-BCP nanocomposite system.
Key words: Solid State and Materials
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2013