Scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a two-layer nonconfocal spheroid that is small compared to the wavelength

Abstract

We have considered the electrostatic problem for a two-layer nonconfocal spheroid. The approach is based on surface integral equations that are similar to equations in terms of the extended boundary condition method for wave problems. Electrostatic fields are related to scalar potentials, which are represented as expansions in terms of eigenfunctions of the Laplace equation in two spheroidal coordinate systems, while unknown expansion coefficients are determined from infinite systems of linear algebraic equations. The constructed rigorous solution to the problem coincides with the known solution in a particular case of a confocal two-layer spheroid. In addition, for the nonconfocal two-layer spheroid, we have constructed an explicit approximated solution assuming that the field in the particle core is constant. This solution coincides with the rigorous solution if the scatterer shells are confocal. The formula found for the polarizability of the two-layer nonconfocal spheroid has a very simple form compared to the previously proposed cumbersome algorithm (B. Posselt et al., Measur. Sci. Technol. 13, 256 (2002)) and is more efficient numerically.