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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Measurement of Particle Size Distribution in Turbid Solutions by Dynamic Light Scattering Microscopy
Published on: January 9, 2017
Systematic comparison of the discrete dipole approximation and the finite difference time domain method for large
Maxim A Yurkin1, Alfons G Hoekstra, R Scott Brock
1Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. myurkin@science.uva.nl
Abstract:
We compare the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) and the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method for simulating light scattering of spheres in a range of size parameters x up to 80 and refractive indices m up to 2. Using parallel implementations of both methods, we require them to reach a certain accuracy goal for scattering quantities and then compare their performance. We show that relative performance sharply depends on m. The DDA is faster for smaller m, while the FDTD for larger values of m. The break-even point lies at m = 1.4. We also compare the performance of both methods for a few particular biological cells, resulting in the same conclusions as for optically soft spheres.
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