Chris Brown, Senior Physics Major



Summer 1997 Research Project
Measurement of Scattering Anisotropy of Visible Light with a Computer Interfaced Goniometer

A goniometer was constructed to measure scattered light. The instrument was computer interfaced in order to obtain an experimental measurement of the distribution of scattered light intensity vs. angle at a chosen wavelength. The goniometer was calibrated with monosized polystyrene microspheres. The samples were held stationary and irradiated with a stationary laser while an optical detector rotated around the sample. The objective was to obtain the average cosine of the scattering angle and compare it to the theoretical anisotropy calculated with Mie scattering theory. The instrument will be used to investigate the optical properties of biological samples such as photosensitized cancer cells. Back to Main Page