Radiative-scattering signatures of an ensemble of nonspherical particles

In a similar way to Mie theory of describing light scattering by a single homogeneous sphere, the generalized multiparticle Mie-solution (GMM) precisely predicts light-scattering characteristics of an ensemble of arbitrarily shaped and arbitrarily oriented nonintersecting particles. Some numerical solutions obtained from the GMM are presented to demonstrate how the scattering and polarization properties of an ensemble of particles vary with particle number, shape, orientation, and configuration. These practical examples clearly show that polarization analysis could be a powerful tool for characterization of small particles. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.