11.

Light Scattering
Coherent vs. incoherent scattering
Radiation from an accelerated charge
Larmor formula
Why the sky is blue
Rayleigh formula
Reflected and refracted beams from water droplets
rainbows
Coherent vs. Incoherent light scattering
Coherent light scattering: scattered wavelets have nonrandom
relative phases in the direction of interest.
Incoherent light scattering: scattered wavelets have random
relative phases in the direction of interest.
Forward scattering is coherent
even if the scatterers are randomly
arranged in the plane.
Path lengths are equal.
Off-axis scattering is incoherent
when the scatterers are randomly
arranged in the plane.
Path lengths are random.
Incident
wave
Example:
Randomly spaced scatterers in a plane
Incident
wave
Coherent vs. Incoherent Scattering
1
exp( )
=

N
incoh m
m
A ju
Incoherent scattering: Total complex amplitude,
2
2
1 1 1
exp( ) exp( ) exp( )
= = =
=

N N N
incoh incoh m m n
m m n
I A j j j u u u
The irradiance:
So incoherent scattering is weaker than coherent scattering, but not zero.
1
1
N
coh
m
A N
=
=

Coherent scattering:
Total complex amplitude, . Irradiance, I A
2
. So: I
coh
N
2
u
m
= u
n m n
u u =
1 1 1 1
exp[ ( )] exp[ ( )]
= = = =
= =
| | | |
= + =
| |
\ . \ .

N N N N
m n m n
m n m n
m n m n
j j N u u u u
Incoherent scattering: Reflection
from a Rough Surface
A rough surface scatters light
into all directions with lots of
different phases.
As a result, what we see is light
reflected from many different
directions. Well see no glare,
and also no reflections.
Wavelength-dependent incoherent
scattering: Why the sky is blue
Air molecules scatter light, and the scattering depends on frequency.
Shorter-wavelength light is scattered out of the beam, leaving longer-
wavelength light behind, so the sun appears yellow. In space, the sun
is white, and the sky is black.
Light from the sun
Air
Radiation from an accelerated charge
initial position
of a charge q,
at rest
{
tiny period of
acceleration,
of duration At
{
coasting at
constant velocity
v for a time t
1
cAt
u
r = ct
1
In order to understand this scattering process, we will analyze it at a
microscopic level. With several simplifying assumptions:
1. the scatterer is much smaller than the wavelength of the incident light
2. the frequency of the light is much less than the resonant frequency.
Radiation from an accelerated charge
cAt
u
vt
1
||
E

E
|| 1
v t
1
v t

By similar triangles:
1
||
v t
c t
E
E

=
A
But the velocity v can be related to the
acceleration during the small interval At:
v = a At
which implies: v a t

= A
1
|| ||
2
a t a r
c c
E E E

| | | |
= =
| |
\ . \ .
and therefore:
||
E Finally, the field must be equal to the field of a static charge
(this can be proved using Gauss Law):
||
2
0
4 r
q
E
tc
=
2
0
a
4 rc

=
q
E
tc
Radiation from an accelerated charge
2
0
a
4 rc

=
q
E
tc
||
2
0
4 r
q
E
tc
=
As r becomes large, the parallel
component goes to zero much
more rapidly than the perpendicular
component. We can therefore
neglect E
||
if we are far enough
away from the moving charge.
Also:
a a sin

= u
So, the radiated EM wave has a magnitude:
( )
( )
2
0
a sin
,
4 rc
=
q t
E r t
u
tc
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10
-6
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
1/r
1/r
2
Spatial pattern of the radiation
60
240
30
210
0
180
330
150
300
120
270 90
a

S
2D slice 3D cutaway view
direction of the
acceleration
Magnitude of the Poynting vector:
( )
( )
2 2 2
2
2 2 3
0
a sin
, sin
16 r c
q t
S r t
u
u
t c
=

No energy is radiated in the direction of the acceleration.

This integral is equal to 4/3
Total radiated power - the Larmor formula
To find the total power radiated in all directions, integrate the
magnitude of the Poynting vector over all angles:
( ) ( )
2
2
0 0
2 2
3
3
0
0
sin ,
a
sin
8 c
=
=
} }
}

P t r d d S r t
q
d
t t
t
u u |
u u
tc
( )
2 2
3
0
a
6 c
=
q
P t
tc
Thus:
This is known as the Larmor formula.
Total radiated power is independent of distance from the charge
Power proportional to square of acceleration
Larmor formula - application to scattering
( )
( )
0
2
2
0

j t
e
e
eE m
x t e
e
e e
Recall our derivation of the position of an electron, bound to
an atom, in an applied oscillating electric field:
(we can neglect the damping
factor I, for this analysis)
a
e
t ^ h =
dt
2
d
2
x
e
=-
eE
0
m
e
~
0
2
~
2
e
-j~t
From the position we can compute the acceleration:
This is known as
Rayleighs Law:
scattered power
proportional to e
4
x
e
t ^ h .
~
0
2
eE
0
m
e
e
-j~t
We assume that the frequency is much smaller than the resonant
frequency, e << e
0
, so this is approximately:
Insert this into the Larmor formula to find:
P
scat
? a
e
2
? ~
4
$ S
in
This is why the sky is blue.
Blue light ( = 400 nm) is scattered
16 times more efficiently than red
light ( = 800 nm)
Total scattered power ~ 4
th
power of the
frequency of the incident light
Rayleighs Law:
sunlight
earth
scattered light that
we see
For the same reason, sunsets are red.
The world of light scattering
is a very large one
Particle size/wavelength
R
e
f
r
a
c
t
i
v
e

i
n
d
e
x
Mie Scattering
R
a
y
l
e
i
g
h

S
c
a
t
t
e
r
i
n
g
Totally reflecting objects
G
e
o
m
e
t
r
i
c
a
l

o
p
t
i
c
s
Rayleigh-Gans Scattering
L
a
r
g
e























~
1























~
0
~0 ~1 Large
There are many
regimes of particle
scattering,
depending on the
particle size, the
light wavelength,
and the refractive
index.
As a result, there
are countless
observable effects
of light scattering.
Another example of incoherent scattering:
the reason for rainbows
Light can
enter a
droplet at
different
distances
from its edge.
water
droplet
One can compute the angle of the emerging light as a
function of the incident position.
Minimum deflection angle (~138);
rainbow radius = 42
Input light paths
~180deflection
Path leading
to minimum deflection
Deflection angle vs. wavelength
Lots of light of all colors is deflected by more than 138,
so the region below rainbow is bright and white.
Because n varies with wavelength, the
minimum deflection angle varies with color.
Lots of red deflected at this angle
Lots of violet deflected at this angle
A rainbow, with supernumeraries
The sky is much brighter below the rainbow than above.
The multiple greenish-purple arcs inside the primary bow are called
supernumeraries. They result from the fact that the raindrops are not all
the same size. In this picture, the size distribution is about 8% (std. dev.)
Explanation of 2nd rainbow
Minimum deflection angle (~232.5)
yielding a rainbow radius of 52.5.
Water droplet
Because the angular radius is larger, the 2nd bow is above the 1st one.
Because energy is lost at each reflection, the 2nd rainbow is weaker.
Because of the double bounce, the 2nd rainbow is inverted. And the
region above it (instead of below) is brighter.
A 2nd rainbow can result from light entering the droplet
in its lower half and making 2 internal reflections.
Distance from
droplet edge
D
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

a
n
g
l
e
The dark band between the two bows
is known as Alexanders dark band,
after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first
described it (200 A.D.)
A double rainbow
Note that the upper bow is inverted.
ray tracing
Multiple order bows
A simulation of the
higher order bows
3
4
5
6
Ray paths for the
higher order bows
3rd and 4th rainbows are weaker, more spread out, and toward the sun.
5th rainbow overlaps 2nd, and 6th is below the 1
st
.
There were no reliable reports of sightings of anything higher than a
second order bow, until 2011.
The first ever photo of a triple and a quad
from Photographic observation of a natural fourth-order rainbow, by
M. Theusner, Applied Optics (2011)
(involving multiple superimposed exposures and significant image processing)
Look here for lots of
information and pictures:
Other atmospheric optical effects
http://www.atoptics.co.uk
Six rainbows?
Explanation: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/bowim6.htm http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/bowim6.htm