Suppression of scattering resonances in inhomogeneous microdroplets

Abstract

Resonance structure in elastic scattering from microdroplets was first observed more than 15 years ago by Ashkin and Dziedzic1, who measured the time evolution of scattering from slowly evaporating optically levitated silicon oil droplets. On the heels of this discovery, Chylek et al2 identified the observed peaks in Ashkin’s data with predicted resonances in the Mie partial wave scattering amplitudes. Resonances were characterized as either transverse electric (TE1n) or transverse magnetic (TM1n) , having a mode number n and mode order 1 corresponding to the 1th resonance in the nth partial wave scattering amplitude. Since these early advances, the importance of these resonances (commonly called morphology dependent resonances or MDR’s) has been recognized not only in elastic scattering, but also in inelastic scattering processes3.