Optical extinction by closely spaced parallel cylinders inside a finite dielectric slab

Abstract

The formulation for the extinction and scattering cross sections of closely spaced parallel infinite cylinders in a dielectric medium of finite thickness is presented. We consider the general case of dissimilar refractive indices for the half-spaces on both sides of the slab, and the diameter and refractive index of each cylinder can be different. The formulation accounts for the coherent scattering between the cylinders and scattering of the multiply reflected internal waves inside the slab. Discontinuity in the refractive index across the dielectric slab interfaces results in boundary reflections that modify the angular distribution of the scattered intensity in both forward and backward directions. The extinction cross section, which is derived by a formal application of the optical theorem, is shown to consist of both a forward and a backward component. The general solution is applied to obtain the formulas for the cases of cylinders in front of a reflecting plane, cylinders inside a semi-infinite dielectric medium, and cylinders in free space.