Engineering with and for light absorption and scattering: A quarter century of experimental research at RTL

Abstract

Characterization of particles requires detailed understanding of light interaction with homogeneous/inhomogeneous and regular/irregular shaped particles, or fractallike structures, within optically thin or thick media. Even after the development of such theoretical understanding, focused experiments need to be carried out to measure scattered light intensity profiles and change in the absorption due to particles present in a given medium. Eventually, the data from such experiments are to be processed thoroughly with the help of robust inverse analyses to determine the required properties. This trilogy of particle characterization research was one of the focus areas of the Radiation Transfer Laboratory at the University of Kentucky over the last quarter century. This paper focuses only on the experimental works conducted and highlights a wide number of research papers published at the RTL for characterization purposes.