Simulated reflection spectra of copper red glaze and gold ruby-pink enamel

Abstract

Copper red glaze and gold ruby-pink enamel are two typical ancient red glazes with high artistic value. At present, researchers already have a good knowledge of copper red glaze, but due to the scarcity of samples, people's understanding of gold ruby-pink enamel is still insufficient and mostly stays at the qualitative level. Based on the multiple scattering theory, we have previously established a framework to calculate the reflection spectra of such colloidal colored glazes and proved that metallic copper nanoparticles are the main colorants of copper red glazes. In this paper, we used this model to systematically study the reflection spectra of copper red glaze and gold ruby-pink enamel under different particle diameters, volume fractions, glaze thickness, and refractive indices of glaze and discussed the relationship between these parameters and the observed glaze color. Then, starting from the basis of Mie scattering theory, the difference in the optical properties of these two red glazes is clearly explained by calculating the scattering coefficients and absorption coefficients of nanoparticles with different particle sizes.