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The simulation of light scattering by particles on a substrate with the T -matrix method relies on the expansion of the scattered field in spherical waves, followed by a plane wave expansion to allow the evaluation of the reflection from the substrate. In practice, the plane wave expansion (i.e., the Sommerfeld integrals) needs to be truncated at a maximal in-plane wavenumber κ max . An appropriate selection of κ max is essential: counter-intuitively, the overall accuracy can degrade significantly if the integrals are truncated with a too large value. In this paper, we propose an empirical formula for the selection of κ max and discuss its application using a number of example simulations with dielectric and metallic oblate spheroids on dielectric and metallic substrates. The computed differential scattering cross sections are compared to results obtained from the discrete-sources method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A software for the simulation of light scattering by multiple particles near planar interfaces is presented. • The usage of the software is illustrated by several application examples. • The accuracy of the results is verified by comparison to FEM and FDTD results. • Simulations with several thousand wavelength-scale particles are feasible. SMUTHI is a python package for the efficient and accurate simulation of electromagnetic scattering by one or multiple wavelength-scale objects in a planarly layered medium. The software combines the T-matrix method for individual particle scattering with the scattering matrix formalism for the propagation of the electromagnetic field through the planar interfaces. In this article, we briefly introduce the relevant theoretical concepts and present the main features of SMUTHI. Simulation results obtained for several benchmark configurations are validated against commercial software solutions. Owing to the generality of planarly layered geometries and the availability of different particle shapes and light sources, possible applications of SMUTHI include the study of discrete random media, meta-surfaces, photonic crystals and glasses, perforated membranes and plasmonic systems, to name a few relevant examples at visible and near-visible wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]