Simultaneous determination of size and wavelength-dependent refractive indices of thin-layered droplets from optical...

A technique for determining the size and wavelength-dependent refractive indices of a droplet coated with a thin layer is presented. The existence of a layer on the droplet is identified by a procedure that involves separate alignments of independently measured TE- and TM-mode resonances with computed homogeneous-sphere resonances. The procedure also yields the mode and the order numbers associated with the measured resonances. The observed resonances are then aligned with layered-sphere resonances of the same mode and order numbers to determine the core radius, layer thickness, and constants of core and shell dispersion formulas that minimize the difference between the observed and the calculated positions of resonances. The technique has been tested with synthetic data with various levels of random errors as well as with experimental data from two droplets under identical conditions. The results show that the core radius, layer thickness, and core and layer refractive indices can be determined with relative errors of 3.5 × 10(-4), 4.5 × 10(-2), 2.3 × 10(-4), and 4.4 × 10(-3), respectively, with the technique.