Internal electric energy in a spherical particle illuminated with a plane wave or off-axis Gaussian beam

The electric energy in a lossless or lossy spherical particle that is illuminated with a plane wave or a Gaussian beam is investigated. The analysis uses a combination of the plane-wave spectrum technique and the T-matrix method. Expressions for the electric energy in any mode as well as the total electric energy inside the particle are given. The amount of energy coupling into the particle for different beam illuminations is also investigated. The high-Q (low-order) resonant modes can dominate the electric energy inside a spherical particle many linewidths away from the resonance location, particularly if the beam is focused at the droplet edge or outside the droplet. If the sphere is lossy, low-order modes can still dominate the electric energy if the beam is focused far enough outside the sphere. As the absorption coefficient of the particle increases, the energy in a high-Q mode decreases much faster at the resonance frequency than it does at near or off-resonance frequencies. The effects of the absorption on the dominance of the internal fields by a high-Q mode decreases as the beam is shifted farther away from the particle. As the beam is shifted farther away from the particle the fraction of the incident energy coupled into the sphere at resonance first increases and then decreases. Although the coupled energy decreases as the beam is shifted farther from the sphere, most of that energy is in the lowest-order mode.