On the Maxwell–Garnett model of chiral composites

The Maxwell–Garnett model for isotropic chiral spherical inclusions in free space has been briefly reviewed, and pertinent results for the effective intrinsic and extrinsic properties of the composite medium, along with useful Taylor expansions, have been obtained in the Drude–Born–Fedorov representation. It has been shown that this model does not yield the chirality parameter of the composite independently of the permeability and the permittivity, and treats the permeability and the permittivity as duals of each other. Finally, even if the inclusions are nonmagnetic, the composite medium may not be necessarily so. It is anticipated that the formulae derived here will not only assist in the formulation of more rigorous multiple scattering theories, but will also aid designers of chiral composites.