Customer Reviews

Light Scattering by Small Particles (Dover Books on Physics)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

van de Hulst has written an extermely useful treatise on light scattering by small particles. The essential assumptions in every derivation are specified, noting the range of validity of most expressions, and the physical interpretation and intuition is expressed through words as well as through mathematics. The book is very readable for people coming from all kinds of disciplines. A background in optics and electrodynamics is definitely useful in understanding the text better.

Being a Dover publication, the book is very affordable and must be on the shelf of every serious student of scattering. The book starts by stating the "limitation", essentially defining the range of topics and physical behavior that is covered in the book, then wave propagation in vacuum and in media is described and the matrix methods associated with polarization are introduced. In part II, the author covers Rayleigh and Rayleigh Gans scattering, i.e. scattering by particles small compared to the wavelength of light, and then describes Mie scattering (rigorously true for spheres of all sizes). Thereafter he discusses several special cases important to metereologists, material scientists, atmospheric sciencists, physicists and chemists. These include particles large compared to wavelength of light, optics of raindrops and rainbows, absorbing and non absorbing spheres and particles with some other shapes (spheroids and cylinders), etc. The lasting popularity of the book is not only because it provides essence of a large body of work on scattering, it is perhaps in the deep insight of the author that is inspirational and educational in every respect, and found in every page of the book!

This book gives an excellent overview on light scattering by small particles and is a must-have for everybody working on scattering phenomena. Whether you are a phycisist, mathematician or engineer, it provides a solid basis for the problems encountered. Further comment is not needed - just consider how often this book is referenced to in scientific publications!

Useful for people that work with scattered light from many types of scattering particles. Good for a summary and equation viewpoint, less useful if you want a deep derivation.

Classic!! Thorough!! Really nothing more to say about this book.
If you decided to buy this book, then I'm sure you already know what this book is about and how classic it is.
Help me a lot for understanding and programming for the Mie scattering.

okay, this book is highly utilized by a great deal of people in the field, but i find the book lacking in readability. It generalizes far too much. It gives too little detail. It reminds me of an outline for a scattering text book. It is a reference text in the truest sense of the word. It's obvious intent is a reminder for those who already know the information, but it is so generalized...it alone is not very useful for the student learning scattering.

The book presents all lihgt scattering phenomena by small particle. It's good for simulation of the opticla scattering. Almost scattering formulas and his devrvation are detial and clear. The best is the price. Wonderful...It's worth to introduce you this book.Light Scattering by Small Particles (Structure of Matter Series.)