1 March 2010 Separating diffraction from scattering: the million-dollar challenge
Philip Laven
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Craig Bohren has offered a million-dollar prize to anyone who can devise a detector that accepts scattered light but rejects diffracted light. This challenge was examined from a theoretical perspective by considering the scattering of red light by a spherical droplet of water with diameter 20 μm. Illumination of the droplet by short pulses (e.g. a duration of 5 fs) could allow a detector to distinguish between light scattered by various mechanisms, such as diffraction, transmission, reflections and surface waves. Although such techniques would not satisfy the precise terms of the challenge, the time domain approach can deliver remarkable insights into the details of the scattering processes.
Philip Laven "Separating diffraction from scattering: the million-dollar challenge," Journal of Nanophotonics 4(1), 041593 (1 March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3374327
Published: 1 March 2010
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Cited by 21 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Scattering

Light scattering

Optical spheres

Diffraction

Reflection

Refractive index

Water

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