Editors: | F. Kongoli, M. de Campos |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2018 |
Pages: | 184 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-987820-96-6 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
In general, the optical properties of nano-dispersive structures are very different from the properties of the bulk materials, and depend on the following structural parameters: the occupancy of the volume of the ultrafine medium with nanoparticles (q); the size and shape of the particles (f); the order of the particles; and the properties of the medium and surrounding nanoparticles (λ<sub>0</sub>) [1,2]. This was predictable because these structures contain from some atoms to thousands of atoms and take a middle place between atoms and massive substances, and subsequently, they have properties different from both of them. In the present paper, using the discontinuous Ni films as examples, we consider theoretically and experimentally the influence of the structural parameters on the optical properties of the ultrafine structures. In this work, the optical properties of nano-dispersive structures are represented within the theoretical Maxwell-Garnett model [3,4]. The behavior of the optical spectra of thin Ni films was explained in the framework of the effective medium approximation in two cases: q<0.5 and 0.5< q<1. In this approach, an effective refractive index (n-ik) of the nano-dispersive structures can be calculated as a function of the λ<sub>0</sub>, q, and particle shapes. These calculations proved a good agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical calculations.