The theory of light scattering by fluctuations has been extended to optically active fluids. The new feature is the "gyration parameter", a second rank asymmetric tensor, the fluctuations of which must be counted along with the familiar isotropic (scalar) and anisotropic (traceless and symmetric) fluctuations of the electric permeability tensor. Scattering equations are derived and solved in order to obtain the spectrum of scattered light. It is found that the angular dependence of scattering caused by fluctuations of permeability alone does not involve the propagation vectors of the incident or scattered fields whereas that which involves fluctuations of the gyration parameter depends explicitly upon these two vectors. This gyration tensor also has distinguishable effects upon the depolarization, ellipticity, and rotation or tilt of the scattered quasi-monochromatic light. The total intensity is resolved into a sum of five distinct contributions, each associated with different irreducible components of the gyration and permeability tensors and each with a different dependence upon the scattering angle and polarizations of the incident and scattered light. Experiments are suggested which emphasize effects originating from the optical activity of the scattering medium.
Numerical Simulation of Laser Light Scattering by a Single Particle Based on Direct Solution of Discretized Maxwell's Equation.