MIE SCATTERING FROM ANISOTROPIC THICK SPHERICAL-SHELLS

A theory of the electromagnetic scattering from spherical shells composed of radially oriented optically anisotropic scattering elements is presented. The theory is valid for arbitrary shell size and index of refraction but is limited to moderate shell thickness compared to the shell radius. The theory includes the effect of the shell thickness to second order, thereby extending previous work by Lange and Aragón [J. Chem. Phys. 92, 4643, (1990)]. Exact closed form solutions could be obtained for some, but not all of the terms in the expansion. Extensive comparisons with exact numerical computations based on infinite series of non-integral order Bessel functions are included, as well as comparisons with the exact closed form expressions of the first order theory. The relationship of the second order theory to the Rayleigh-Debye approximation is examined and it is shown that, in contrast to the first order case, there are Mie corrections to the effects of the optical anisotropy on the scattering amplitudes. These results are useful in the interpretation of light scattering experiments from phospholipid vesicle dispersions. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.