Application of Mie theory to assess structure of spheroidal scattering in backscattering geometries

Inverse light scattering analysis seeks to associate measured scattering properties with the most probable theoretical scattering distribution. Although Mie theory is a spherical scattering model, it has been used successfully for discerning the geometry of spheroidal scatterers. The goal of this study was an in-depth evaluation of the consequences of analyzing the structure of spheroidal geometries, which are relevant to cell and tissue studies in biology, by employing Mie-theory-based inverse light scattering analysis. As a basis for this study, the scattering from spheroidal geometries was modeled using T-matrix theory and used as test data. In a previous study, we used this technique to investigate the case of spheroidal scatterers aligned with the optical axis. In the present study, we look at a broader scope which includes the effects of aspect ratio, orientation, refractive index, and incident light polarization. Over this wide range of parameters, our results indicate that this method provides a good estimate of spheroidal structure. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.