Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles

Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles
Treating absorption and scattering in equal measure, this self-contained, interdisciplinary study examines and illustrates how small particles absorb and scatter light. The authors emphasize that any discussion of the optical behavior of small particles is inseparable from a full understanding of the optical behavior of the parent material-bulk matter. To divorce one concept from the other is to render any study on scattering theory seriously incomplete.
Special features and important topics covered in this book include:
* Classical theories of optical properties based on idealized models
* Measurements for three representative materials: magnesium oxide, aluminum, and water
* An extensive discussion of electromagnetic theory
* Numerous exact and approximate solutions to various scattering problems
* Examples and applications from physics, astrophysics, atmospheric physics, and biophysics
* Some 500 references emphasizing work done since Kerker's 1969 work on scattering theory
* Computer programs for calculating scattering by spheres, coated spheres, and infinite cylinders

Craig F. Bohren is Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of two popular scientific books, Clouds in a Glass of Beer (for which he received the American Meteorological Society's Louis J. Battan Author's Award) and What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks?, also available from Wiley.

Donald R. Huffman is Regents Professor of Physics at the University of Arizona. In 1983 he and colleague Wolfgang Kratschmer produced the first sample of C60, buckminsterfullerene. The pair was honored with the MRS medal and shared in the 1994 Hewlett-Packard Europhysics Prize.