INVERSION OF LOW-ANGLE ELASTIC LIGHT-SCATTERING DATA WITH A NEW METHOD DEVISED BY MODIFICATION OF THE CHAHINE ALGORITHM

A new inversion method, devised by modification of the nonlinear itera tive method originally proposed by Chahine [J. Opt. Sec. Am. 58, 1634 (1968)] is applied to the inversion of low-angle elastic Light-scatter ing data. The algorithm was tested by computer simulations carried out within the wave-vector range 2.5 x 10(2)-2.5 x 10(4) cm(-1). The part icle-size distributions were recovered in the 0.70-77-mu m range of ra dii. Compared with the original method of Chahine, this algorithm is m uch more stable and reliable with respect to random noise, improves th e overall reliability of the fitting, and allows both number and weigh t particle-size distributions to be retrieved accurately. When the per formances of the method are investigated with respect to the noise, th e results of the simulations show that the particle-size distributions can be recovered accurately up to noise levels of several rms percent . (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.