Long-wavelength models for effectively chiral and achiral microwave composites containing chiral inclusions

Abstract

The non-local constitutive relations describing a chiral medium which lacks reflection symmetry are different from an ordinary dielectric medium. When `chiral' inclusions (either because of their handed geometry or because they are made of a chiral material) are dispersed in a dielectric host medium, the effective properties of the resulting composite can be described by constitutive relations that make the effective medium effectively chiral or achiral. In most effective medium theories, there is preference to model the fields in terms of the fields in the host medium so that the effective medium resembles the host medium rather than the inclusion material. Four different effective medium models are examined for chiral inclusions in the long wavelength limit for the purpose of predicting effective properties of microwave chiral composites.