Light scattering in dielectric disk arrays and atomic scattering by helium

Abstract

The exact scalar wave solution for light scattering from a general dielectric disk array is found. The exact solution as well as a numerical solution is also given for an array of three dielectric disks, whose centers are placed on the vertices of an equilateral triangle. The various (differential, total and averaged total) cross sections and the poles of the scattering matrix are given. These results are analyzed in part by considering the effects which arise from the geometry of the system, and in part by comparison with the results (cross sections and poles) for a system with an identical arrangement of three hard (perfectly conducting) disks and with a system of one dielectric disk. This analysis helps rule out structure that arise from the chaos, which is very likely to exist, in the classical (geometric) limit of the three (or more) dielectric disk system. In the future after I study the geometric (classical) and physics (semiclassical) regimes of this system, I plan to reanalyse the exact wave solution in an attempt to discover the traces of the chaos present in the system. Time dependent Hartree-Fock theory (TDHF), with improved formulation and improved computer capabilities, is used to repeat the calculations of charge capture for the He²⁺ on He collision. The results of these calculations allow us to discuss the effects of various numerical truncations and to establish with certainty the viability and the accuracy of TDHF in its application to ion-atom collisions. Initially, we had hoped to find chaos in the TDHF problem, as it is nonlinear. However, due to the complexity and computational difficulties present in the TDHF problem, a simpler scattering system of light scattering from dielectric disk arrays was chosen for study.