General theory of light scattering in solids

Abstract

Abstract A theory of light scattering is developed which uses consequently the connection between the scattered light and the fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. A general formula is given expressing the scattering cross‐section in terms of the fluctuations of the electrical conductivity operator, and by applying the dissipation‐fluctuation theorem in terms of the conductivity operator itself. It is shown how the common representations of the scattering cross‐section can be derived from the general theory.