Mie theory: A review

Abstract

In optical particle characterisation and aerosol science today light scattering simulations are regarded as an indispensable tool to develop new particle characterisation techniques or in solving inverse light scattering problems. Mie scattering and related computational methods have evolved rapidly during the past decade such that scattering computations for spherical scatterers a few order of magnitudes larger, than the incident wavelength can be easily performed. This significant progress has resulted from rapid advances in computational algorithms developed in this field and from improved computer hardware. In this chapter the history and a review of the recent progress of Mie scattering and Mie-related light scattering theories and available computational programs is presented. We will focus on Mie scattering theories but as there is much overlap to related scattering theories they will also be mentioned where appropriate. Short outlines of the various methods are given. This review is of course biased by my interest in optical particle characterisation and my daily reading. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.