Determination of Optical Constants from Extinction Measurements.

Abstract

Traditional methods of determining the optical constants of particulate materials by means of transmission, absorption, and reflectance measurements are known to be inherently inaccurate. The use of the Lorenz-Mie formalism to derive the optical constants from extinction data overcomes the problems associated with the traditional methods; but, as currently practiced, this method has severe limitations. In this paper, we report an entirely new approach to determining the optical constants of aerosols from extinction data. This is an iterative method which uses the Lorenz-Mie formalism in conjunction with the Kramers-Kronig dispersion relations in order to derive the optical constants of the aerosol material. The theory of the method is developed in detail and is applied successfully to find the optical constants of an o-phosphoric acid aerosol in the 7-to 14-microns infrared. The numerical procedure is shown to introduce an error of less than 1 percent in the determination of the o-phosphoric acid optical constants. Limits on n,k and the particle size distribution for which the method is valid are indicated.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1981
Accession Number
ADA099494

Entities

People

  • D. H. Anderson
  • J. F. Embury
  • M. E. Milham
  • R. H. Frickel

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computations
  • Dispersion Relations
  • Distribution Functions
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Electromagnetic Scattering
  • Measurement
  • Mie Scattering
  • New York
  • Optical Properties
  • Particle Size
  • Particulates
  • Phosphoric Acids
  • Polaritons
  • Refractive Index
  • Scattering
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Spectroscopy.