Light scattering by dielectric needles and disks

Abstract

Light‐scattering properties of very thin or flat dielectric particles are approximately calculated by means of a method which combines Rayleigh‐Gans and Rayleigh scattering. For the approximation to be valid the shortest diameter of the particle, R_min, must be small compared to the longest diameter R_max and to the wavelength λ of the incident radiation. The method is applied to needles and circular disks and yields the scattering matrix and the differential and total scattering cross section in the lowest order of R_min/R_max and R_min/λ. For the disks the total cross section is calculated only in the limiting cases of long and short wavelengths.