Light scattering by Möbius particles

Abstract

Using the Discrete-Dipole Approximation (DDA) we study scattering-angle dependences of the orientationally averaged Mueller matrix elements for small Möbius particles with different chirality. A Möbius particle is a strip of a certain width and thickness, the ends of which are attached to each other after twisting one of them at an angle by a multiple of □. The Mueller matrices M_ik for such particles have 16 non-zero elements. The scattering-angle dependences of the intensity M₁₁, linear polarization degree (-M₁₂/M₁₁), and Circular Intensity Differential Scattering (CIDS = -M₁₄/M₁₁) show their sensitivity to the refractive index and number of the strip twisting. For instance, the CIDS depends significantly on the complex part of the refractive index. Particles with more twists show a decrease in the maximum value of the positive branch of linear polarization and an increase in the width and minimum of the negative branch. The twist parameter's influence on CIDS is non-monotonic, initially increasing and then approaching zero with further twisting.