SCATTERING PHASE FUNCTION OF A SILICA AEROGEL AT 450 NM WAVELENGTH

A complete profile of the scattering phase function of a silica aeroge l with the refractive index of 1.050 was determined at 450 nm waveleng th utilizing an iterative inverse-scattering-problem resolver. It is f ound that the phase function of the silica aerogel is comparatively cl ose to Rayleigh's phase function, but the forward scattering component of the obtained phase function is slightly greater than that of Rayle igh's phase function. Moreover, a characteristic size of scatterers co nsisting of the aerogel was estimated based on the correlated-scatteri ng theories and is found to be 10-20 nm.