Scattering phase function of a silica aerogel at 450 nm wavelength

Abstract

A complete profile of the scattering phase function of a silica aerogel with the refractive index of 1.050 was determined at 450 nm wavelength utilizing an iterative inverse-scattering-problem resolver. It is found that the phase function of the silica aerogel is comparatively close to Rayleigh's phase function, but the forward scattering component of the obtained phase function is slightly greater than that of Rayleigh's phase function. Moreover, a characteristic size of scatterers consisting of the aerogel was estimated based on the correlated-scattering theories and is found to be 10–20 nm.