Electromagnetic scattering and absorption by a finite conducting thin fiber.

摘要

Scattering, absorption and extinction by a thin finite length conducting wire are computed numerically by solving the Generalized Pocklington integro-differential equation using two distinct approaches: the Method of Moments and the Galerkin method. The former employs discretization of the wire and the latter uses Legendre polynomials as basis functions with modifications to satisfy the boundary conditions of the problem. A new development included in the computations to be reported here involves a more accurate rendering of wires with lower aspect (length-to-diameter) ratios. Both methods converge to the same answer and satisfies the energy balance to within one percent for high aspect ratios. In spite of the improvement of the computational model, lower aspect ratios still satisfy the energy balance less precisely. A comparison is made with an existing analytical theory by Waterman and Pedersen. This theory solves a more approximate form of the Pocklington equation. The solutions of this study agree with the analytical theory for very thin wires and give a small but significant amplitude and resonance shift for lower aspect ratios. All three solutions are in agreement with the numerous available experimental results to within the experimental errors.; The measurements of this study were used to examine the agreement with recently developed theory for long wavelength fibrous aerosol attenuative properties (extinction and components absorption, scattering). This was intended to be the final phase of a long and systematic examination of the theory's key features. In this case the parameters were high conductivities coupled with a broad range of fiber diameters. It is clear that there is a limit on the extinction efficiency or effective extinction cross section per unit fiber volume represented by the fiber diameter of translucency, that is, the diameter at which the fiber is not completely opaque to the electromagnetic energy. This is approximated by the classical ""skin depth"" of the fiber. Above this diameter, the peak extinction efficiency decreases with the increase in diameter at about the same rate for all conductors. The scattering resonance producing this peak at the higher conductivities becomes stronger with increasing diameter. Our data confirmed that, for fiber diameters below the skin depth, the character of the attenuation becomes that of absorption.