Observation of the enhanced backscattering of light by the end of a tilted dielectric cylinder owing to the caustic merging transition.
The scattering of light by obliquely illuminated circular dielectric cylinders was previously demonstrated to be enhanced by a merger of Airy caustics at a critical tilt angle. [Appl. Opt. 37, 1534 (1998)]. A related enhancement is demonstrated here for backward and near-backward scattering for cylinders cut with a flat end perpendicular to the cylinder's axis. It is expected that merged caustics will enhance the backscattering by clouds of randomly oriented circular cylinders that have appropriately flat ends.
Marston
Philip L
PL
Department of Physics, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-2814, USA. marston@wsu.edu
Zhang
Yibing
Y
Thiessen
David B
DB