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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 28: Poster III

CPP 28.55: Poster

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 11:30–13:30, Poster C

The Mueller Matrix for Scattering by Polydisperse Non-Chiral Samples — •Reinhard Sigel — 88677 Markdorf, Germany

Light scattering measurements at a thin film or by an ensemble of particles in a dispersion are versatile tools for sample characterization. To fully exploit the technique for maximum information, the control of polarization of the incident and the detected light is required. Often samples are not ideal but include distributions of the orientation of anisotropic scattering centers and their sizes. Thus, a theoretical description ends up in the Stokes-Mueller formalism [1]. All 16 elements of the Mueller matrix can be measured [2]. It remains a task, however, to make use of such a set of partially interdependent data for a characterization of the sample which produces such scattering. The simplest case are samples without depolarization, where there is no intermixing between two orthogonal linear polarization directions. A size distribution of isotropic scattering centers is sufficient to fit an experimental Mueller Matrix for such a case [3]. To extend the model to depolarization in the simplest case, we assume equal scattering behavior for left and right circularly polarized light. Such equality is to be found for non-chiral samples. It reduces the number of independent parameters, and it is sufficient to consider a common polydispersity distribution of two real parameters for the resulting Mueller matrix.

[1] C.F.Bohren, D.R. Huffman, Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles (Wiley, Weinheim 1983).

[2] R.M.A. Azzam, Opt. Lett. 2, 148-150 (1978).

[3] R. Sigel, A. Erbe, Appl. Opt. 47, 2161-2170 (2008).

Keywords: Mueller Matrix; Scattering; Circular Polarization; Polydispersity