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Exercise6 Optical theorem

This document discusses the interaction between a plane wave and a small dipolar particle in free space, focusing on the scattering and absorption cross-sections. It outlines the derivation of the extinction cross-section, the relationship between dipole moment and polarizability, and the effects of radiation reaction on the effective polarizability. The document concludes with a mathematical simplification assuming weak absorption, leading to a relationship between extinction, absorption, and scattering cross-sections.

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2 views

Exercise6 Optical theorem

This document discusses the interaction between a plane wave and a small dipolar particle in free space, focusing on the scattering and absorption cross-sections. It outlines the derivation of the extinction cross-section, the relationship between dipole moment and polarizability, and the effects of radiation reaction on the effective polarizability. The document concludes with a mathematical simplification assuming weak absorption, leading to a relationship between extinction, absorption, and scattering cross-sections.

Uploaded by

abdeloumamm
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interaction between light

and a dipolar particle


In this exercise we will consider a plane wave scattered by a small dipolar particle sitting in
free space. The situation is illustrated below.

nr
nθ
E0
θ
p
Es

The plane wave is propagating along the x axis and is described by the background field
E0 exp(ik0 x ) = E0 exp(ik0 x )n z . The time-dependence is harmonic, i.e. given by the usual
exp(-iωt) function. The dipolar particle is positioned at x = y = z = 0.

In the exercise we will assume that the characteristic size of the particle is much smaller than
the wavelength. In this case all points of the particle respond simultaneously to the incoming
field. This is the quasi-static approximation and the quasi-static polarizability is then given by
α(ω). The plane wave polarizes the particle giving it a dipole moment p according to
p = α (ω )E0 . (1)

The dipole moment p in turn gives rise to a scattered field Es.

The absorption cross-section σabs and the scattering cross-section σscatt of a particle are
defined as the total power absorbed and scattered respectively by the particle divided by the
incident intensity of the exciting wave. The extinction cross-section σext is then defined as the
sum of the two.

The optical theorem states that the extinction cross-section σext of a plane wave propagating
along the x axis and scattering off an arbitrary object is given by
4π
=σ ext Re {Z ⋅ n E } , (2)
k2 y , z =0

where k is the wavenumber, nE = nz is the unit vector in the direction of the incident
polarization and Z is the scattering amplitude evaluated for x → ∞ . Its value is to be
evaluated along the propagation direction of the plane wave, i.e. along the x axis with y, z = 0.
Z is related to the scattered far-field Es as

eikR
Es = − ZE0 , (3)
ikR
with R being the radial distance from the scattering object and E0 the amplitude of the incident
plane wave. Notice that Z is dimensionless. In the case of a small particle, Es is simply the
field that is generated by the dipole p.

1)

Derive the result


k
σ ext = Im(α ) . (4)
ε0
Hint: This can be done by using a generalization of N&H eq. (8.63) for the electric field
radiated by a dipole. The book writes the dipole moment as p = p n z on the bottom of page
235. This separates the vectorial and the scalar contributions of the dipole moment but does
not allow for a complex-valued dipole moment. To take into account the possibility of a
complex value, we generalize Eq. (8.63) by writing p = pn z , where p is a complex number,
and we then make the replacement p → p .

2)

Calculate the scattering cross-section σscatt = P0/I0 by using N&H eq. (8.79) and the
2
expression for the incident intensity I 0 = ε 0c E0 / 2 .

3)

Derive the absorption cross-section σabs = Pabs/I0 using the relationship


=Pabs (ω / 2) Im {p ⋅ E∗0 } and show that it is identical to σext.

It follows that the extinction cross-section calculated using the optical theorem only accounts
for absorption and not for scattering. Thus the quasi-static polarizability α has to be handled
with care. The solution is to implement a correction to α taking into account the radiation
reaction during the light scattering process.

4)

The radiation reaction force Fr defines a self-field Eself according to Fr = qEself. Using the
dipole moment p = qr and N&H eq. (8.85) express Eself.
5)

The dipole moment p is induced by the local field consisting of the external field E0 and the
self-field Eself according to

=p α (ω )  E0 + Eself  . (5)

Substitute Eself from 4) and arrange terms to get p = α eff (ω )E0 . Show that the effective
polarizability αeff(ω) is given by
α (ω )
α eff (ω ) = . (6)
k3
1− i α (ω )
6πε 0

6)

To simplify the mathematics, we will now assume that the particle is weakly absorbing such
that its polarizability is predominantly real-valued and the imaginary part is small. In this
2
case, we can write α 2 ≈ α . By performing a series expansion of αeff(ω) given by (6) and
inserting the first two terms only of the series into (4) show that
σ=
ext σ abs + σ scatt . (7)

We see that in the series expansion of (6), the first term leads to absorption while the second
term defines scattering.

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