Theoretical investigation of the optical and plasmonic properties of the nanocomposite media composed of silver nanoparticles embedded in rubidium

Abstract

This theoretical study investigates, the optical response of a metal-dielectric nanocomposite of silver and rubidium (Ag/Rb) is theoretically studied via Maxwell-Garnett Model by varying the size, shape and volume ratio of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the coherently driven four levels rubidium dielectric atomic media. The rubidium being an alkali metal behaves as dielectric under quantum coherence effect. It was found that the optical response of this nanocomposite media strongly depends on the coherent driving fields applied in the atomic ensemble, the volume fraction of the AgNPs as well as their size and the applied frequencies. It was found that the dielectric function decreases with the increase in AgNPs’ size, while increase in Rabi frequency increases the refractive index. Similarly, the dispersion and absorption decrease with decrease in volume fraction of the AgNPs. Our results suggest important applications of this nanocomposite in various fields such as energy harvesting, photovoltaics and quantum plasmonics. The modeling approach developed in this study provides great freedom for tuning optical properties of the metal-dielectric nanocomposites.