The complex dielectric function enables the study of a material's refractive and absorptive properties and provides information on a material's potential for practical application. Commonly employed line shape profile functions from the literature are briefly surveyed and their suitability for representation of dielectric material properties are discussed. An analysis approach to derive a material's complex dielectric function from observed transmittance spectra in the far-infrared and submillimeter regimes is presented. The underlying model employed satisfies the requirements set by the Kramers-Kronig relations. The dielectric function parameters derived from this approachtypically reproduce the observed transmittance spectra with an accuracy of < 4%.

Date Published: 19 July 2016
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 9914, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 99142W (19 July 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2232648

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9914:
Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII
Wayne S. Holland; Jonas Zmuidzinas, Editor(s)