COMPARISON OF COMPUTATIONAL SCATTERING METHODS

There are various methods to compute electromagnetic scattering by arb itrarily shaped particles. The aim of this article is merely to give a short introduction to three very different types of methods and have a look at the applicabilities and shortcomings of each. At first some comments are made. to the Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA), alias C oupled Dipole Method (CDM), as a special form of the Volume Integral E quation Method (VIE); to the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) and to the Extended Boundary Condition Method (EBCM). As an example the re sults and the parameters of different codes for a cube are compared to give just a hint of the computational demands. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.