Approved for public release / This research was part of an ongoing program studying the concept of multi-material dielectrics (MMD) with dielectric constants much higher than homogenous materials. MMD described in this study have dielectric constants six orders of magnitude greater than the best single materials. This is achieved by mixing conductive particles with an insulating surface layer into a composite matrix phase composed of high surface area ceramic powder and aqueous electrolyte. Specifically examined in this study was micron-scale nickel powder treated in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) loaded into high surface area alumina powder and aqueous boric acid solution. This new class of dielectric, composite electrolyte dielectrics (CED), is employed in an electrostatic capacitor configuration and demonstrated dielectric constant of order 10 [raised to the 10th power] at approximately 1 Volt. Additionally, it is demonstrated that treated nickel can be loaded in high volume fractions in the CED configuration. Prior studies of composite capacitors indicated a general limitation due to shorting. This results from the onset of percolation due to excess loading of conductive phases. Insulated particles described herein are successfully loaded up to 40% by volume, far above typical percolation thresholds. Simple models are presented to explain results. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

In dieser Arbeit untersuchen wir das optische Antwortverhalten von planaren Spektrometern basierend auf ungeordneten Streuzentren, dielektrischen Verbundnanopartikeln mit einer plasmonischer Ummantelung, sowie volldielektrischen magnetooptischen formveränderten Metaoberflächen. Dafür benutzen wir sowohl Mie und Mehrfach-Streutheorie als auch ein unstetiges Galerkin Zeitraumverfahren basierend auf finiten Elementen zur numerischen Berechnung der elektromagnetischen Felder. Wir stellen insbesondere eine theoretische Designstudie vor, um ungeordnete Spektrometer mit hoher spektraler Auflösung zu erhalten. Darüber hinaus geben wir eine alternative Strategie an, um durch Untersuchung der optischen Eigenschaften von Verbundnanopartikeln eine Erhöhung der bevorzugten Rückstreuung zu erreichen. Zum Schluss präsentieren wir eine Erhöhung der Faraday-Rotation bei gleichzeitig hoher Transmission von volldielektrischen magnetooptischen Metaoberflächen, welche aus formangepassten Nanodisks bestehen. / In this thesis, we study the optical response of planar spectrometers based on disorder scatterers, composite dielectric nanoparticles with plasmonic shell, and all-dielectric magneto-optical shape-modified metasurfaces. Therefore, we employ both Mie and multiple scattering theory as well as a discontinuous Galerkin time-domain method based on finite elements for the numerical computation of the electromagnetic fields. Specifically, we present a theoretical design study for obtaining random spectrometers with high spectral resolution. Furthermore, we provide an alternative strategy to achieve preferentially high backscattering by studying the optical properties of composite nanoparticles. Finally, we present enhanced Faraday rotation along with high transmittance in all-dielectric magneto-optical metasurfaces composed of shape-modified nanodisks.