SYSTEMATIC BEHAVIOR OF THE MIE SCATTERING COEFFICIENTS OF SPHERES AS A FUNCTION OF ORDER

The Mie scattering coefficients of large homogeneous dielectric sphere s are shown to vary systematically with order. A general analysis of t he coefficients gives formulas that depend only on two real electric a nd magnetic multipole phase angles. Such angles decrease in a quasimon otonic manner with order and explain the cutoff of Mie and Gegenbauer coefficients at order n approximate to alpha, the outer size parameter of the sphere, independently of the refractive index to first order. When the relative refractive index of the sphere m is moderately great er than unity, the multipole phase angles become integer values of pi at large orders and approach zero by a sequence of steps in the form o f a descending staircase. It is also shown that Rayleigh-Debye scatter ing corresponds to the limiting case of m-1-->0.