Customizable web service interface for light scattering simulation programs

Investigation of light scattering by simulations became increasingly important in recent years. Applications range from plasmonics to optical particle characterization. While there are hundreds of programs available, using them can be very time consuming: installation, configuration and operation often are laborious. As a result potential users of such software might be discouraged by the complexity of the necessary tasks. Not only 'casual users' - scientists who need light scattering simulation results for their daily work but who are not specialized on the topic - could benefit from tools to execute the calculations online via an easy to use web-interface accessed by a browser. In this case no local installation of the software is necessary, a user friendly interface helps learning and understanding the use of programs, while calculations can be done from anywhere and any time as long as a user is connected to the internet. This paper describes a newly developed interface that can be used for these purposes. It is made freely available to everyone and can be adapted to a variety of existing light scattering programs. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.