Materials that contain distinct scatterers, for example, nanoparticles, with sizes exceeding 100 nm scatter light heavily and are heterogeneous. In contrast, the atomic or molecular scatterers in conventional optical materials form a homogeneous distribution on the scale of the wavelength. In this paper, the transition between homogeneous and heterogeneous materials is investigated. To this end, a procedure is introduced that allows for retrieving reliable refractive index values from full wave optical numerical simulations of the underlying multibody scattering problem. Using this procedure, it is shown that the concept of an effective refractive index breaks down on multiple levels as a material transitions out of the homogeneous regime. These findings allow for quantifying how novel dispersion‐engineered nanocomposites for bulk optical applications must be designed and show that Maxwell–Garnett‐type effective medium theories are accurate tools for the design of nanocomposites. The procedure can be readily generalized to other types of scatterers, including atoms and molecules and hence guide the design of different kinds of novel materials.

中文翻译：

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在单散射体级别对光学材料建模：从均质材料到非均质材料的过渡

包含不同散射体的材料（例如，尺寸超过100 nm的纳米粒子）会严重散射光并且是异质的。相反，常规光学材料中的原子或分子散射体在波长范围内形成均匀分布。在本文中，研究了均质材料和非均质材料之间的过渡。为此，引入了一种程序，该程序允许从潜在的多体散射问题的全波光学数值模拟中检索可靠的折射率值。使用该程序，表明当材料从均质状态过渡时，有效折射率的概念会在多个级别上分解。这些发现可以量化用于大体积光学应用的新型色散工程纳米复合材料的设计方法，并表明Maxwell–Garnett型有效介质理论是设计纳米复合材料的准确工具。该程序可以很容易地推广到其他类型的散射体，包括原子和分子，因此可以指导设计各种新型材料。