Light Scattering by Coated Sphere Immersed in Absorbing Medium: A Comparison between the FDTD and Analytic Solutions

A recently developed finite-difference time domain scheme is examined using the exact analytic solutions for light scattering by a coated sphere immersed in an absorbing medium. The relative differences are less than 1% in the extinction, scattering, and absorption efficiencies and less than 5% in the scattering phase functions. The definition of apparent single-scattering properties is also discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.