Composite materials based on plasmonic nanoparticles allow building metamaterials with very large effective permittivity (positive or negative). Moreover, if clustered or combined with other nanoparticles, it is also possible to generate effective magnetic permeability (positive or negative), and an ad-hoc design would result in the generation of double negative materials, and therefore backward wave propagation. In this work, the optical properties such as the effective permittivity, permeability and refractive index of Au-ZnS and Au-ZnO nanocomposites in a broad frequency range are studied. The enhancement is attributed to energy transfer from ZnS or ZnO to Au followed by a large local electromagnetic field on or near the surface of the Au nanoparticles. Local surface plasmon resonance could be the key reason for this enhancement. The surface plasmon, in response to changes in the refractive index of the local environment, also depends on the type of metal through the bulk plasma wavelength and the nano-particle compositions and geometry.
