A scattering approach for the characterization of composite materials

A scattering approach for the calculation of the effective constitutive parameters of composite materials is discussed. The scattering behavior of a generic particle is first formulated by a T-matrix using dipole-polarizabilities and an expansion of the dipole fields into spherical harmonics. Then, a simpler alternative approach is developed and applied to compute the scattered fields of composite samples. The effective constitutive parameters are calculated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The method is validated with small metal helices, forming a chiral material, by comparing the calculated constitutive parameters to those obtained by the Maxwell-Garnett mixing rules.