Polymer composites based on polyvinyl chloride nanofibers and polypropylene films for terahertz photonics

The optical properties of the polymer composites consisting of polyvinyl chloride nanofibers and polypropylene films in the frequency range of 0.2-1.0 THz were studied, and the mechanical properties of polyvinyl chloride nanofibers and the structure porosity were investigated. An iterative mathematical model based on effective medium theory was used to describe the effective refractive index and absorption coefficient of the polymer composites. The permittivity tensors of the composites were calculated using the Rytov method. We found that the refractive indices of the composites increased with the increase of polypropylene contents, while absorption coefficients remained the same. The polarization-dependencies of THz optical properties of the composites were relatively low. The proposed composites have the potential to be used as materials for terahertz optical components. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement