High Frequency Scattering from Arbitrarily Oriented Dielectric Disks

Calculations have been made of electromagnetic wave scattering from dielectric disks of arbitrary shape and orientation in the high frequency (physical optics) regime. The solution is obtained by approximating the fields inside the disk with the fields induced inside an identically oriented slab (i.e. infinite parallel planes) with the same thickness and dielectric properties. The fields inside the disk excite conduction and polarization currents which are used to calculate the scattered fields by integrating the radiation from these sources over the volume of the disk. This computation has been executed for observers in the far field of the disk in the case of disks with arbitrary orientation and for arbitrary polarization of the incident radiation. The results have been expressed in the form of a dyadic scattering amplitude for the disk. The results apply to disks whose diameter is large compared to wavelength and whose thickness is small compared to diameter, but the thickness need not be small compared to wavelength. Examples of the dependence of the scattering amplitude on frequency, dielectric properties of the disk and disk orientation are presented for disks of circular cross section.