Non-spherical particles in optical tweezers: A numerical solution.

We present numerical methods for modeling the dynamics of arbitrarily shaped particles trapped within optical tweezers, which improve the predictive power of numerical simulations for practical use. We study the dependence of trapping on the shape and size of particles in a single continuous wave beam setup. We also consider the implications of different particle compositions, beam types and media. The major result of the study is that for different irregular particle shapes, a range of beam powers generally leads to trapping. The trapping power range depends on whether the particle can be characterized as elongated or flattened, and the range is also limited by Brownian forces.

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths.

Theoretical, numerical, and experimental methods are presented for multiple scattering of light in macroscopic discrete random media of densely-packed microscopic particles. The theoretical and numerical methods constitute a framework of Radiative Transfer with Reciprocal Transactions (R2T2). The R2T2 framework entails Monte Carlo order-of-scattering tracing of interactions in the frequency space, assuming that the fundamental scatterers and absorbers are wavelength-scale volume elements composed of large numbers of randomly distributed particles. The discrete random media are fully packed with the volume elements. For spherical and nonspherical particles, the interactions within the volume elements are computed exactly using the Superposition T-Matrix Method (STMM) and the Volume Integral Equation Method (VIEM), respectively. For both particle types, the interactions between different volume elements are computed exactly using the STMM. As the tracing takes place within the discrete random media, incoherent electromagnetic fields are utilized, that is, the coherent field of the volume elements is removed from the interactions. The experimental methods are based on acoustic levitation of the samples for non-contact, non-destructive scattering measurements. The levitation entails full ultrasonic control of the sample position and orientation, that is, six degrees of freedom. The light source is a laser-driven white-light source with a monochromator and polarizer. The detector is a mini-photomultiplier tube on a rotating wheel, equipped with polarizers. The R2T2 is validated using measurements for a mm-scale spherical sample of densely-packed spherical silica particles. After validation, the methods are applied to interpret astronomical observations for asteroid (4) Vesta and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Figure 1) recently visited by the NASA Dawn mission and the ESA Rosetta mission, respectively.

Radiative transfer with reciprocal transactions: Numerical method and its implementation.

We present a numerical method for solving electromagnetic scattering by dense discrete random media entitled radiative transfer with reciprocal transactions (R2T2). The R2T2 is a combination of the Monte Carlo radiative-transfer, coherent-backscattering, and superposition T-matrix methods. The applicability of the radiative transfer is extended to dense random media by incorporating incoherent volume elements containing multiple particles. We analyze the R2T2 by comparing the results with the asymptotically exact superposition T-matrix method, and show that the R2T2 removes the caveats of radiative-transfer methods by comparing it to the RT-CB. We study various implementation choices that result in an accurate and efficient numerical algorithm. In particular, we focus on the properties of the incoherent volume elements and their effects on the final solution.

Multiple scattering of light in discrete random media using incoherent interactions.

We consider the scattering and absorption of light in discrete random media of densely packed spherical particles. In what we term "radiative transfer with reciprocal transactions" (R2T2), we introduce a volume element of the random medium, derive its scattering and absorption characteristics using the superposition T-Matrix method (STMM), and compute its frequency-domain incoherent volume-element scattering characteristics. Using an order-of-scattering approach, we then compute a numerical Monte Carlo solution for the scattering problem with an exact treatment of the interaction between two volume elements. We compute both the direct and reciprocal contributions along a sequence of volume elements, allowing us to evaluate the coherent backscattering effects. We show that the R2T2 and exact STMM solutions are in mutual agreement for large finite systems of densely packed spherical particles. We conclude that the R2T2 method provides a viable numerical solution for scattering by asymptotically infinite systems of particles.

Polarized backscattering by clusters of spherical particles.

The linear and circular polarization ratios for clusters of spherical particles averaged over multiple orientations show a systematic pattern as a function of the refractive index and the size parameter. We show that, at backscattering, the depolarizing behavior of orientation-averaged clusters of spheres can be approximated by second-order scattering of bispheres. The pattern is relatively invariable in terms of the number of particles. We also demonstrate the significance of the near-field effects for polarization at backscattering.