Simulating Light Scattering from Micron-Sized Particles: A Parallel Fast Discrete Dipole Approximation

Employing the combination of a kernel with low computational complexity, implemented on powerful HPC systems, we are now able to push the limits of simulation of light scattering from arbitrary particles towards particles with dimensions up to 10 micrometer. This allows for the first time the simulation of realistic and highly relevant light scattering experiments, such as scattering from human white blood cells, or scattering from large soot — or dust particles. We use the Discrete Dipole Approximation to simulate the light scattering process. In this paper we report on a parallel Fast Discrete Dipole Approximation, and we will show the performance of the resulting code, running under PVM on a 32-node Parsytec PowerXplorer. Furthermore, we present results of a simulation of scattering from a model of a small Human White Blood Cell. This model is the largest possible particle fitting in memory of our parallel computer, and contains 1.1 million dipoles.

[1]  Peter M. A. Sloot,et al.  Native and generic parallel programming environments on a transputer and a PowerPC platform , 1996 .

[2]  C. Sorensen,et al.  Light-scattering measurements of monomer size, monomers per aggregate, and fractal dimension for soot aggregates in flames. , 1992, Applied optics.

[3]  Herbert Begemann,et al.  Atlas of Clinical Hematology , 1979, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[4]  B G de Grooth,et al.  Light-scattering polarization measurements as a new parameter in flow cytometry. , 1987, Cytometry.

[5]  D. Hahn,et al.  Role of metal additives in light scattering from flame particulates. , 1992, Applied optics.

[6]  P. Sloot,et al.  Elastic light scattering from nucleated blood cells: rapid numerical analysis. , 1986, Applied optics.

[7]  B. Draine,et al.  Discrete-Dipole Approximation For Scattering Calculations , 1994 .

[8]  F. Bryant,et al.  Changes in total light scattering and absorption caused by changes in particle conformation. , 1968, Journal of theoretical biology.

[9]  A G Hoekstra,et al.  Dipolar unit size in coupled-dipole calculations of the scattering matrix elements. , 1993, Optics letters.

[10]  R. T. Wang,et al.  Scattering from arbitrarily shaped particles: theory and experiment. , 1991, Applied optics.

[11]  R. Harrison,et al.  Optical and dynamical properties of fractal clusters of carbonaceous smoke , 1989 .

[12]  Peter M. A. Sloot,et al.  Coupled Dipole Simulations of Elastic Light Scattering on Parallel Systems , 1995 .

[13]  J. M. Greenberg,et al.  A model for the optical properties of porous grains , 1990 .

[14]  T. Manteuffel,et al.  A taxonomy for conjugate gradient methods , 1990 .

[15]  E. Purcell,et al.  Scattering and Absorption of Light by Nonspherical Dielectric Grains , 1973 .

[16]  B. Draine,et al.  Application of fast-Fourier-transform techniques to the discrete-dipole approximation. , 1991, Optics letters.

[17]  J. Rahola,et al.  Light Scattering by Porous Dust Particles in the Discrete-Dipole Approximation , 1994 .

[18]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  Scattering matrix elements of biological particles measured in a flow through system: theory and practice. , 1989, Applied optics.

[19]  W. Eberhard.  Ice-cloud depolarization of backscatter for CO(2) and other infrared lidars. , 1992, Applied optics.

[20]  Z. Kam,et al.  Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles , 1998 .