  Two active dielectric materials may be blended together to realize a
homogenized composite material (HCM) which exhibits more gain than either
component material. Likewise, two dissipative dielectric materials may be
blended together to realize an HCM which exhibits more loss than either
component material. Sufficient conditions for such gain/loss enhancement were
established using the Bruggeman homogenization formalism. Gain/loss enhancement
arises when (i) the imaginary parts of the relative permittivities of both
component materials are similar in magnitude and (ii) the real parts of the
relative permittivities of both component materials are dissimilar in
magnitude.
