Mie scattering distinguishes the topological charge of an optical vortex: A homage to Gustav Mie
Valeria Garbin, Giovanni Volpe, Enrico Ferrari, Michel Versluis, Dan Cojoc & Dmitri Petrov
New Journal of Physics 11, 013046 (2009)
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/11/1/013046
One century after Mie’s original paper, Mie scattering is still a fertile field of scientific endeavor. We show that the Mie scattering distinguishes the topological charge of light beams with phase dislocations. We experimentally and numerically study the scattering of highly focused Laguerre–Gaussian beams by dielectric and metal spheres, and show that the scattered field is sensitive to the modulus and to the sign of the topological charge. The implications for position detection systems are also discussed.