Effect of absorption on light scattering by agglomerated debris particles

We study the influence of material absorption on light scattering by agglomerated debris particles whose sizes are comparable with the wavelength. We find that the angular profile of linear polarization is extremely sensitive to the imaginary part of refractive index, and there are some unique features that may assist in the retrieval of physical properties of particles using remote-sensing techniques. Most notably, the position of the positive polarization maximum alpha(max) changes monotonically with the imaginary part of refractive index, allowing it to be used to characterize this property. In addition, the amplitude of the negative polarization branch (NPB) is significantly greater for dielectric particles than for non-dielectric particles. It disappears in the transition region between dielectric and conducting particles before reappearing as the imaginary part of the refractive index is increased further. Further increasing the imaginary part of the refractive index may see the NPB disappearing and reappearing in quasi-periodic fashion. This recurrent NPB has a much smaller amplitude than that of dielectric particles. This suggests that the cometary circumnuclear haloes, which have significant NPBs, cannot contain significant quantities of absorbing particles. In addition, combined observations suggest that the polarization maximum of circumnuclear haloes are relatively small P(max)similar to 2%, and occur at relatively small phase angles alpha(max)similar to 60 degrees, which is also consistent with dielectric particles. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.