Light scattering by random and oriented anisotropic rods

A model theory was used to calculate isointensity contours describing the light scattering envelopes of a collection of anisotropic rods for the H v andV v scattering modes. The rods were assumed to lie in a plane perpendicular to the incident light beam and only intrarod interference was considered. The influence of several factors on the theoretical scattering pattern was investigated: uniaxial and biaxial orientation of rods, anisotropy of the rods, rod polarisability with respect to that of the surrounding medium, and rod length with respect to the wavelength of the light. The theoretical predictions were confirmed using a model system consisting of condenser paper imbibed with liquids of varying refractive index.