Electrical control of the linear optical properties of particulate composite materials

The Bruggeman formalism for the homogenization of particulate composite materials is used to predict the effective permittivity dyadic of a two constituent composite material with one constituent having the ability to display the Pockels effect. Scenarios wherein the constituent particles are randomly oriented, oriented spheres and oriented spheroids are numerically explored. Thereby, homogenized composite materials (HCMs) are envisaged whose constitutive parameters may be continuously varied through the application of a low-frequency (dc) electric field. The greatest degree of control over the HCM constitutive parameters is achievable when the constituents comprise oriented and highly aspherical particles and have high electro-optic coefficients.