SINGLE SCATTERING OF LIGHT BY CIRCULAR-CYLINDERS

We consider two topics pertaining to light scattering by circular cyli nders. (A) Scattering properties of cylinders with increasing aspect r atio are studied. It is shown that the solution for finite cylinders d oes not converge to the solution for infinitely long cylinders if the aspect ratio increases. This is due to differences in the treatment of diffraction for finite and infinite cylinders. (B) Finite cylinder sh ave sharp edges, so their scattering properties differ from those of s pheroids having the same aspect ratio. To illustrate these differences we present scattering matrix elements of cylinders and spheroids for a large set of aspect ratios. To handle the large amount of data, the scattering matrix elements as functions of aspect ratio and scattering angle are presented in so-called three-dimensional figures.