INFLUENCE OF CHIRAL SHAPES OF INDIVIDUAL INCLUSIONS ON THE ABSORPTIONIN CHIRAL COMPOSITE COATINGS

This paper presents a theoretical investigation of reflection properti es of planar layers of chiral composite materials. The goal of the stu dy is to clarify the influence of inclusion shape on reflection and ab sorption in chiral mixtures. It is explained why the slabs of low-dens ity isotropic chiral and racemic mixtures of chiral particles of conve ntional shapes (helices, wire-and-loop elements) possess very similar reflective properties for waves coming from the normal direction. In p articular, we consider certain ''asymmetric'' chiral shapes, such that the chirality factor of single individual particles modifies the effe ctive permittivity and permeability of mixtures with many inclusions. Numerical examples demonstrate typical properties of lossy chiral slab s.