The effects of local fields on laser gain for layered and Maxwell Garnett composite materials

Abstract

We develop simple theoretical models for calculating the effective linear susceptibilities of layered and Maxwell Garnett composite materials with a gain resonance in one of their components. We distinguish two cases of resonant components: the case of 'pure resonant emitters', in which all the atoms or molecules of the resonant medium are of the same sort, and the case of 'resonant emitters in a background', in which only a fraction of the molecules or atoms comprising the resonant component of a composite material are in resonance with the optical field. Analysis of these models suggests that local-field effects in composite materials can provide a useful means for controlling the optical properties of laser gain media.