Abstract

The multiple scattering of light by two or more neighboring dielectric spheres is analyzed with the approximation that the propagation of light inside the spheres is a rectilinear motion in the average direction of initial and final waves. The rectilinear propagation results in interesting consequences: it yields certain symmetry properties in the scattered waves with respect to the orientations of dielectric spheres; it gives the threshold angle for multiple scattering processes which provides a simple criterion for the spheres to mutually interact significantly; it results in a useful sum rule which relates the many sphere systems to an effective single sphere system, and provides a quick (but approximate) way for calculating the scattered light by the complex system. These are derived theoretically and are numerically verified by comparing with the exact calculations in some simple cases.

© 1989 Optical Society of America