Abstract

Quantum-mechanical expressions for nonresonance-dipole light-scattering cross sections are related to corresponding expressions for oscillator strengths and refractive indices. In particular, Rayleigh and Raman cross sections for atoms are expressed in terms of oscillator strengths and vector-coupling coefficients. Several of our results, including the relationship between Rayleigh scattering and refractive index, differ in general from the corresponding results of classical dispersion theory. We show that these differences arise from antisymmetric components C_kj^a = (C_kj − C_jk)/2 of the polarizability tensor, which have been neglected in the classical analyses. Calculated Rayleigh cross sections for cesium and aluminum atoms, and Raman cross sections for aluminum atoms are presented to illustrate our results. The antisymmetric contribution is found to be substantial in all of these cross sections; its most obvious effect is to cause the depolarization (for linearly polarized incident light) to exceed $\frac{3}{4}$ over extended wavelength ranges away from resonance. On the other hand, for atoms initially in states of zero angular momentum, and molecules under conditions which allow the use of Placzek’s polarizability approximation, our results agree with those of classical dispersion theory.

© 1969 Optical Society of America

Absolute rotational Raman cross sections for N₂, O₂, and CO₂

C. M. Penney, R. L. St. Peters, and M. Lapp
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 64(5) 712-716 (1974)

Hole Theory of Light Scattering by Liquids*

O. Theimer and K. O. White
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(2) 181-186 (1969)

Oscillator Strengths of the Resonance Lines of Krypton and Xenon*

P. M. Griffin and J. W. Hutcherson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(12) 1607-1613 (1969)

General Orientation Dependence of Rayleigh and Raman Scattering and Scattering by Linear Molecules in Arbitrary Electronic States*

Ying-Nan Chiu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 60(5) 607-620 (1970)

Mutual Power Spectrum for Propagation through Random Media: Generalization of the Beran Result

Koichi Mano
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59(4) 381-385 (1969)