ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the problem of light scattering by a sphere on a multi-layered substrate. In the Rayleigh limit, computationally-efficient closed-form expressions for the fax-zone scattered fields are derived from the radiation of induced dipoles in the sphere in the presence of the substrate. These expressions incorporate in a rather explicit manner the various parameters of the problem. For spheres beyond the Rayleigh limit, an extension of the rigorous formulation is used for the prediction of the scattered far-field patterns. The chapter investigates the variation of particle-scattered-field pattern with particle size and substrate layers characteristics. In addition, the rigorous formulation is used to derive upper bounds on particle size for which the computationally-efficient Rayleigh scattering expressions may be implemented with acceptable accuracy. The closed-form expressions derived in the Rayleigh limit can be applied also to the case of a sphere suspended in the air above a multi-layered substrate.
