Light Propagation through Weakly Absorbing Layers of Dielectric Cube-Shaped Particles

Abstract

Light propagation through ensembles of dielectric particles with various packing density is studied by the method of physical modeling in the SHF range. Monolayers and multilayers of weakly absorbing cube-shaped particles with the refractive index n = 1.5 are investigated. Particle dimensions are comparable to the incident radiation wavelength. Dependences of the transmittance T and the scattering efficiency factor Q on the diffraction parameter ρ are obtained for ensembles of particles with various overlap factors η. For monolayers of particles, the effect of an enhanced transmittance with increasing packing density of particles is observed. Conditions are specified at which the monolayer transmittance is equal to zero. It is shown that the Mie formulas, derived for spherical particles, can be used to calculate the optical characteristics of an ensemble of particles with chaotic orientation of particle sides, if the diameter of an equivalent sphere is set equal to the cube edge length multiplied by a correction factor of 1.15. Transition to an ordered orientation of cube-shaped particle sides leads to increase in the scattering efficiency factor for ρ > 2.