Small‐angle polarized light scattering by spherulites

The light‐scattering matrix for a three‐dimensional spherulite is derived within the Ray‐leigh‐Gans‐Debye light‐scattering approximation. New expressions for the polarized, small‐angle light‐scattering intensities I VV and I VH are derived from the scattering matrix. These expressions are compared with the I VV and I VH expressions derived for a spherulite by Stein and Rhodes. For the case of a weakly anisotropic spherulite having an average refractive index mismatch with its surroundings, the two sets of expressions predict different I VV and I VH intensities. In particular, our expressions show that the I VV and I VH patterns usually attributed to the spherulitic anisotropy and crystallinity are also predicted for an isotropic sphere. This is in accord with recent experiments.