Light Scattering by Pure Water

Abstract

The Rayleigh ratio and depolarization of water have been measured under a variety of experimental conditions at two wavelengths and the same data from the literature critically discussed. These experimental results are compared with the Rayleigh ratios calculated from the Einstein equation corrected for depolarization. We find that the best experimental results agree closely with the theoretical values. The possibility of obtaining information on the structure of water from light scattering is discussed.