Young's interference in light scattering by spheres

Young's interference pattern was observed in laser light scattering by spheres on the backside of a glass plate, but not on the frontside of the substrate. This was because that former method eliminated or reduced the influence of light scattering from a substrate on interference fringes. Young's interference makes the prediction of integrated scattering cross section of spheres complicated for the case of high number density of deposited particles. A modified Bohbert–Vlieger model that takes interference effect into consideration is proposed. Analysis shows that this model is reasonable to describe light scattering cross section of spheres.

► An experiment was designed to observe Young's interference fringes in light scattering by spheres on the backside of a plate.
► We treat particles on a substrate as a plane grating that can form similar interference phenomenon.
► A modified BV model combined with interference effect is proposed to reasonably predict scattering cross section.