A brief review on optical properties of polymer Composites: Insights into Light-Matter interaction from classical to quantum transport point of view

Abstract

In recent years, the optical capabilities of polymer composites have dominated the marketplace for applications in optoelectronic and energy devices. Supercapacitors, light-emitting displays, optical waveguide sensors, and organic photovoltaic cells are a few examples of the applications of the optical behavior of composites. Polymer composites are composed of nano/micro-sized inorganic particles (such as semiconductors, metal complexes, and synthetic nanoparticles) that are distributed within a polymer matrix. These materials have a significant role because they combine the optical properties of inorganic materials with the ease of processing of polymers, which utilizes the potential and performance of polymer-based optical systems.Optical features of polymer composites, such as indices of refraction, transparency, dispersion, and coefficients of absorption, influence their potential uses in optical systems and devices. The purpose of this research is to establish more insight into the optical characteristics of polymer composites and to understand the correlations between the structure and optoelectronic behavior of polymer composites. This review involves general concepts, scientific guidelines, and feasible mathematical sections. The unique optical characteristics of some common polymers (PEO, PMMA, PVA, and CS) and polymer composites are briefly reviewed. This review article establishes the fact that metal complexes are excellent over ceramic filler or nano-particles to improve optical absorption and decrease the optical band gap. An inspection of the fundamentals of light-matter interaction, ranging from classical (Drude-Lorentz model) to quantum methods for studying electron transition was exhibited. Furthermore, the applications of Tauc’s model and optical dielectric loss parameters to estimate the optical energy band gap of polymer composites are explained. Other fundamental optical parameters, such as absorption coefficient, optical dielectric constant, and refractive index are also explored. Finally, the Wemple-DiDomenico (WD) model is applied to investigate; the refractive index, optical dielectric constant, and optical spectra moments. The correlations between the optical dielectric function and several parameters such as ε∞, τ, N/m*, µopt, ρopt, ωp, and Eg are derived. Various models based on refractive index and absorption coefficient are discussed in detail to estimate crucial optical parameters.