Classic Papers on Light Scattering

Electromagnetic scattering by a homogeneous, isotropic sphere is commonly referred to as Mie theory, although Gustav Mie (1868 - 1957) was not the first to formulate this electromagnetic scattering problem. Before him Alfred Clebsch (1833 - 1872), solving the elastic point source scattering problem of a perfectly rigid sphere using potential functions and Ludvig Lorenz (1829-1891) contributed to this problem. In 1909 Peter Debye (1884 - 1966) considered the related problem of radiation pressure on a spherical particle utilizing two scalar potential functions. Therefore plane wave scattering by a homogeneous isotropic sphere is also referred to as Lorenz-Mie theory, or even Lorenz-Mie-Debye theory.

broken links updated (16 April 2019)

• [1] Alfred Clebsch: Ueber die Reflexion an einer Kugelfläche. Journal für Mathematik, Band 61, 1863, Heft 3, p 195-262.
• [2] Ludvig Lorenz: Lysbevaegelsen i og uden for en af plane Lysbolger belyst Kugle. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter, 6. Raekke, 6. Bind, 1890,1, p 1-62.
• [3] Ludvig Lorenz: Sur la lumière réfléchie et réfractée par une sphère (surface) transparente. in Oeuvres scientifiques de L. Lorenz. revues et annotées par H. Valentiner. Tome Premier, Libraire Lehmann & Stage, Copenhague, 1898, p 403-529.
• [3a] Ludvig Lorenz: Light propagation in and outside a sphere illuminated by plane waves of light. Translated by Jeppe Revall Frisvad and Helge Kragh (Copenhagen 2018).
• [4] Gustav Mie: Beiträge zur Optik trüber Medien, speziell kolloidaler Metallösungen. Annalen  der Physik, Vierte Folge, Band 25, 1908, No. 3, p 377-445.
• [5] Gustav Mie: Contributions to the optics of turbid media, particularly of colloidal metal solutions. Royal Aircraft Establishment, Library Translation 1873, 1976, RAE-Lit-Trans-1873.
• [6] Gustav Mie: Contributions on the optics of turbid media, particularly colloidal metal solutions --- Translation. Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1978, SAND78-6018. National Translation Center, Chicago, ILL, Translation 79-21946.
• [7] Peter Debye: Der Lichtdruck auf Kugeln von beliebigem Material. Annalen  der Physik, Vierte Folge, Band 30, 1909, No. 1, p 57-136.
• [8] Arnold Sommerfeld: Über die Ausbreitung der Wellen in der drahtlosen Telegraphie. Annalen  der Physik, Vierte Folge, Band 28, 1909, No. 4, p 665-736.
• [9] A. E. H. Love: The scattering of electric waves by a dielectric sphere. Proc. London Math. Soc. v. 30 (1899) p. 308-321.
• [10] Fantisek Záviška: Über die Beugung elektromagnetischer Wellen an parallelen, unendlich langen Kreiszylindern. Annalen der Physik Folge 4, Band 40, p. 1023–1056.
• [11] J. V. Dave: Subroutines for Computing the Parameters of the Electromagnetic Radiation Scattered by a Sphere, Report 320-3237 IBM Scientific Center, Palo Alto, Calif., (1968).

Introduction

broken links updated (16 April 2019)
In 1908 Gustav Mie published his famous paper on the colour of Gold colloids. This paper is still much cited today.
In this web page we try to collect information on the various activities that intend to somehow celebrate this hundred years of Mie's theory.

Conferences

• Mie Theory 1908 - 2008, Present developments and interdisciplinary aspects of light scattering, Halle, Germany 15.-16. 9. 2008. (21.2.2008). Proceedings: T. Wriedt, W. Hergert (editors): Mie Theory 1908-2008. Present developments and interdisciplinary aspects of light scattering. Universität Bremen, Bremen 2008.

• 11th Conference on Electromagnetic and Light Scattering by Nonspherical Particles (ELS - 11), 7-12 Sept. 2008, University of Hertfordshire, UK.

• Light scattering: Mie and more. Gesellschaft für Aerosolforschung (GAeF) Conference 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany, July 2 to 3, 2008.

Mie's original paper and translations

• Gustav Mie: Beiträge zur Optik trüber Medien, speziell kolloidaler Metallösungen. Annalen der Physik, Vierte Folge, Band 25, 1908, No. 3, p 377-445.
• Gustav Mie: Beiträge zur Optik trüber Medien, speziell kolloidaler Metallösungen. Annalen der Physik, Vierte Folge, Band 25, 1908, No. 3, p 377-445.
• Gustav Mie: Contributions to the optics of turbid media, particularly of colloidal metal solutions. Royal Aircraft Establishment, Library Translation 1873, 1976, RAE-Lit-Trans-1873.
• Gustav Mie: Contributions on the optics of turbid media, particularly colloidal metal solutions --- Translation. Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1978, SAND78-6018. National Translation Center, Chicago, ILL, Translation 79-21946.
• Gustav Mie: Consideraciones sobre la óptica de los medios turbios, especialmente soluciones coloidales; Traducción: Arturo Quirantes Sierra (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
• typos in the original text found by Arturo Quirantes Sierra (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Papers on Gustav Mie and Mie's theory

• Mie, Gustav, Dr. phil. nat.;
• Harry Bateman: The mathematical analysis of electrical and optical wave-motion on the basis of Maxwell's equations. Cambridge University Press, 1915. (PDF, DjVu, TXT available).
• Ghanshyam A. Shah: Numerical methods for Mie theory of scattering by a sphere. Kodalkenel Obs. Bull. Ser. A (1977) 2, 42-63.
• Pedro Lilienfeld: Gustav Mie the person. Applied Optics 30 (1991), 4696-4698.
• Siegmar Adomßent: Des Landes große Physiker. Traditio et Innovatio 10 (2005) 2, 41-42.
• Wolfram Hergert: Gustav Mie und Albert Einstein. Diskussion zur Entwicklung der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie. scientia halensis (2005) 3, 13-14.
• Werner Marx: Dornröschen und Mauerblümchen. Nachzügler und vergessene Arbeiten in der Physik. Phys. Unserer Zeit 38 (2007) 1, 34-39.
• Gustav Mie, catalogus professorum halensis.
• Uwe Kreibig: Mie gilt fast nie: Grenzen und Erweiterungen der Theorie von Mie.
• Ehrenmitglieder der DPG
• ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITÄT FREIBURG IM BREISGAU VORLESUNGSVERZEICHNIS für das Winterhalbjahr 1934/35.
• Leo Corry: From Mie's Electromagnetic Theory of Matter to Hilbert's Unified Foundation of Physics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 30(2): 159-183 (1999).
• Helmut Spehl: Mie, Gustav Adolf Feodor Wilhelm Ludwig, Physiker in Berd Ottnad (Hrsg.): Badische Biographien, Neue Folge, Band III, W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1990, S. 186-190.
• Kuo-Nan Liou: A Complementary Theory of Light Scattering by Homogeneous Spheres. Applied Mathematics and Computation 3 (1977), 331-358.
• Uwe Kreibig: Optische Eigenschaften von Nanopartikeln, Hundert Jahre Mie-Theorie. Phys. Unserer Zeit 39 (2008) 6, 281-286.
• Uwe Kreibig: Hundert Jahre Mie-Theorie. Ergänzungen.
• Thomas Wriedt: Mie Theory 1908-2008, Introduction to the conference. In T. Wriedt, W. Hergert (editors): Mie Theory 1908-2008. Present developments and interdisciplinary aspects of light scattering. Universität Bremen, Bremen 2008. 17-21.
• Thomas Wriedt: Mie theory 1908, on the mobile phone 2008. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 109 (2008), 1543–1548. FnattLabME including Mie scattering application
• Hergert, Wolfram; Wriedt, Thomas (Eds.): The Mie Theory Basics and Applications, Springer Series in Optical Sciences, 2012.
• Alan Rawle:The life of Gustav Mie and the development of the Lorenz-Mie solution to Maxwell’s equations.
• Brian Stout and Nicolas Bonod: Gustav Mie: the man, the theory. Photonique, 2020.

• Manuel Nieto-Vesperinas: Fundamentals of Mie scattering in Dielectric Metamaterials 2020, Pages 39-72.

Web pages

• Mie Translation Project by Arturo Quirantes Sierra (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
• Historic Papers
• A Short History of Physics in Greifswald
• Mathematics Genealogy Project, Gustav Mie
• Gustav-Mie-Haus, Hochhaus der Fakultät für Physik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau

Wikipedia pages

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mie
• ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%93%D1%83%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2_%D0%9C%D0%B8
• de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mie
• de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miesches_Einheitensystem
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mie_theory

Contact and more information
Thomas Wriedt

Electromagnetic codes available (16.05.1994)

This note intends to answer frequently asked questions  con-
cerning  electromagnetic  codes.  It  mainly lists codes for
computation  of  electromagnetic  scattering  by  dielectric
spheres, spheroids, bodies of revolution and irregular scat-
terers.
If you know of any code not listed, please send an e-mail to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I will then include it in this list.

Mie code
for scattering by dielectric spheres
MIEV.tar by Warren J. Wiscombe
available by FTP from microwave.jpl.nasa.gov
in directory/pub

Coated sphere
BHCOAT and BHMIE listed in
C.F. Bohren, D. Huffman
Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles
J. Wiley & Sons, New York 1983
A  precompiled version of BHMIE for MS-DOS is available from
Chuck  Harrison  via  ftp   to   netcom.com   in   directory
/pub/cfh/mie/bhmie-nw.exe

Optically active sphere
FORTRAN code listed in
C.F. Bohren
Light scattering by optically active particles
PhD 1975, University of Arizona
available from University Microfilm International

T-matrix
for scattering by axisymmetric particles.
T1.FOR, T2.FOR abailable on disk in
P.W. Barber, S.C. Hill
Light Scattering by Particles: Computational Methods
World Scientific, Singapore 1990

T-matrix
for electromagnetic and acoustic scattering by spheres.
TMAT.FOR listed in
V.V. Varadan, A. Lakhtaria, V.K. Varadan
Field representation and introduction to scattering.
North Holland, Amsterdam 1991

T-matrix
for scattering by  conducting bodies.
TMAT.FOR by P.C. Watermann listed in
R. Mittra (editor)
Computer Techniques for Electromagnetics.
Washington 1973

T-matrix
scattering by randomly oriented spheroids
FORTRAN code sisted in
F.Ja. Sid'ko, V.N. Lopatin, L.E. Paramonov
Poljarizacionn'ie  harakteristiki  vzvesej biologieceskih
cactic
Nauka, Novosibirsk 1990

GMT
Generalised multipole technique for electro-magnetic simula-
tion.
MMP.FOR available on disk in
Christian Hafner, Lars Bomholt
The 3D Electromagnetic Wave Simulator
Wiley, Chichester 1993
$ 384.00

Transmission line method
for stripe line and wave guide problems.
Code available on disk in
W.J.R. Hoefer, P.P.M. So
The Electromagnetic Wave Simulator
Wiley, Chichester

Moment Method
for scattering by inhomogeneous body.
Moment Method Volume Integral code
listed in
Johnson J.H. Wang
Generalized Moment Methods in Electromagnetics
Wiley, New York

FDTD
Finite difference time domain code for 3D scattering by  ir-
regular scatterers
FDTDA.FOR by Raymond J. Luebbers
listed in
Karl S. Kunz, Raymond J. Luebbers
Finite  Difference  Time Domain Method for Electromagnet-
ics.
CRC Press, Boca Raton 1993
also available by FTP from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
in directory/pub/aces/fdtd

Comercial X-Windows version
(XFDTD $ 4940) available from
REMCOM, Inc.
Calder Square
POBox 10023
State College, PA 16805

Finite Integration Theory
MAFIA commercial CAE programme
(DM 1500,-- for German universities) available from
CST GmbH
Lauteschlägerstr. 38
D-64289  Darmstadt

Conference on Electromagnetic and Light Scattering by Nonspherical Particles:
Theory, Measurements, and Applications

The ELS conference series combines two series: the Workshop on Electromagnetic and Light Scattering (Bremen, 1996; Moscow, 1997; Bremen, 1998) and the Workshop on Light Scattering by Nonspherical Particles (Amsterdam, 1995; Helsinki, 1997; New York, 1998). The first combined conferences were held in Vigo, Spain in 1999, in Halifax, Canada in 2000 and in Gainesville, Florida in 2002.
The conference encompasses all experimental and theoretical aspects of single and multiple scattering of electromagnetic radiation by nonspherical and heterogeneous particles.

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