Effects of cellular fine structure on scattered light pattern
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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Measuring Spatially- and Directionally-varying Light Scattering from Biological Material
Published on: May 20, 2013
Caigen Liu1, Clarence E Capjack
1Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2J1, Canada. caigeliu@phys.ualberta.ca
Abstract:
Biological cells are complex in both morphological and biochemical structure. The effects of cellular fine structure on light scattered from cells are studied by employing a three-dimensional code named AETHER which solves the full set of Maxwell equations by using the finite-difference time-domain method. It is shown that changes in cellular fine structure can cause significant changes in the scattered light pattern over particular scattering angles. These changes potentially provide the possibility for distinguishability of cellular intrastructures. The effects that features of different intrastructure have on scattered light are discussed from the viewpoint of diagnosing cellular fine structure. Finally, we discuss scattered light patterns for lymphocyte-like cells and basophil-like cells.
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