Light scattering calculations for irregularly shaped axisymmetric particles of homogeneous and layered compositions

The boundary matching method, a mathematical procedure for determining the electromagnetic fields associated with the interaction of monochromatic light with irregularly shaped particles, is used to calculate single-particle far-field scattering efficiencies and nondimensionalized far-field scattering intensity distributions for plane wave illuminated particles of various geometries and of both homogeneous and layered compositions. Particle geometries considered include prolate spheroid, oblate spheroid, and axisymmetric `corrugated' particles with radial shape functions of , where n = 2, 4, 6 and 10. Results are presented for an equivalent sphere volume size parameter of 20. The calculations demonstrate that even relatively modest deviations from spherical geometry (e.g. for the n = 10 corrugated particle) can result in significant differences in far-field scattering, particularly in the backscatter direction.