Optical properties of binary composite materials with two nonlinear components

Abstract

A new formulation is presented for the calculation of effective dielectric magnitudes of two-component composites in which both components (the host matrix particles and the embedded particles) exhibit nonlinear behaviour of the Kerr type. It is predicted that, under certain conditions, two nonlinear component composites can exhibit optical bistable behaviour as a function of the shape and concentration of the embedded particles, the dielectric contants of the components, the intensity of the external electric field (power density) and the intrinsic third-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities χ(3) p and χ(3) m of the nonlinear components. It is also deduced that, as the power density increases, the effective third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility χ(3) of the composite exhibits a clear transition from values close to χ(3) p (low power density) to χ(3) m (high power density). Therefore, it is shown that the optical response of binary composites dramatically changes at moderate and high power densities. A comparison is performed between the optical response of a real two nonlinear component composite and that of a composite with a single nonlinear component.