Mie scattering and rough surfaces

Abstract

The light-scattering properties of rough surfaces for which the feature size is comparable to the photon wavelength are shown to be well modeled by an ensemble of noninteracting spheres, where the scattering properties of each sphere are given by the Mie theory. The fractions of incident light forward scattered and backscattered by rough SnO2 films deposited on glass, or backscattered by such films overcoated with Ag, are measured and compared to the model.