Light Scattering from an Optically Active Sphere into a Circular Sensor Aperture

Abstract

Two methods are developed to average V and I Stokes parameters over a circular sensor aperture collecting light scattered from an optically active sphere. One method uses a two-dimensional numerical integration of Bohren's theory in scalar form, which explicitly shows the connection with Mueller matrix elements. The second method uses expansions of vector spherical harmonics in Bohren's theory to integrate over apertures of any size without convergence checks since numerical integration is avoided. Equations simplifying the analytical results for 4π scattering are obtained. Sample computations of average Stokes parameters are performed with both methods, and agreement to six decimal places is obtained.ii