Experimental study on light scattering by biological cells with discrete sources method

In this paper, an experimental apparatus for the analysis of biological cells light scattering in liquid suspensions has been presented. Firstly, an algorithm of the discrete sources method (DSM) is applied to model light scattering from a cell particle. In our model, a monochromatic laser beam scattered by cell particles, which can be inorganic, organic, or biological cells (animal cells and bacteria) and the scattering characteristic is analyzed with morphology and the refractive index of the cell particles. In contrast to traditional volume-based methods which are widely used for light scattering simulation, DSM allows calculation of scattering for all incident angles and polarizations at once. This leads to an essential reduction of the computing time. The DSM algorithm allows using a lower number of elementary sources which results in an increased accuracy of approximation for every harmonic. Secondly, in order to study light scattering in biological cells close to the actual situation, we focus on non-spherical particles in the cell-culture medium. Finally, we demonstrate the light scattering results of bovine kidney cells suspended in the cell-culture medium, and compares with the simulated results.