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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Experimental evidence of zero forward scattering by magnetic spheres
R V Mehta1, Rajesh Patel, Rucha Desai
1Department of Physics, Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar, 364 002, India. rvm@bhavuni.edu
Abstract:
Magnetically induced diffraction patterns by micron sized magnetic spheres dispersed in a ferrofluid disappear at a certain critical magnetic field. This critical field is found to depend on the concentration of the ferrofluid and on the volume of the magnetic spheres. We attribute this effect to the zero forward scattering by magnetic spheres as predicted by Kerker, Wang, and Giles [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73, 765 (1983)]. We suggest that such a dispersion can be used to study the optical analogues of localization of electrons in condensed matter, the Hall effect, and the anisotropic diffusion, etc. The combination of the micron sized magnetic spheres and the ferrofluid will also be useful to design magnetically tunable photonic devices.
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