Abstract

The scattering of light by obliquely illuminated circular dielectric cylinders was previously demonstrated to be enhanced by a merger of Airy caustics at a critical tilt angle. [Appl. Opt. 37, 1534 (1998)]. A related enhancement is demonstrated here for backward and near-backward scattering for cylinders cut with a flat end perpendicular to the cylinder’s axis. It is expected that merged caustics will enhance the backscattering by clouds of randomly oriented circular cylinders that have appropriately flat ends.

© 2003 Optical Society of America

Scattering observations for tilted transparent fibers: evolution of Airy caustics with cylinder tilt and the caustic merging transition

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Descartes glare points in scattering by icicles: color photographs and a tilted dielectric cylinder model of caustic and glare-point evolution

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