A forward-angle-scattering method for the determination of optical constants and particle size distribution by collimated laser irradiation

This study examined the feasibility of using a secondary optimization technique and forward-angle-scattering method to retrieve optical constants (or complex refractive indices) and particle size distribution (PSD) simultaneously. In this work, two continuous wave lasers of different wavelengths were applied to irradiate the participating samples, and the scattered light of samples with different acceptance angles was obtained. First, the scattered signals within different acceptance angles were calculated by solving the radiative transfer equation. Then, the complex refractive index and PSD were retrieved simultaneously by applying quantum particle swarm optimization. However, the estimated results of PSD were inaccurate. Thus, a secondary optimization, which using the directional radiative intensity as input, was performed to improve the accuracy of PSD based on the first optimization process. Four commonly used kinds of monomodal PSD functions, i.e., the Rosin-Rammler, standard Normal, Logarithmic Normal, and Junge distribution, were retrieved. All results showed that the proposed technique can estimate the complex refractive index and PSD accurately.