A unified approach, using spheroidal functions, for solving the problem of light scattering by axisymmetric particles (Q393351)

A transmission problem for the time-harmonic, piece-wise isotropic, homogeneous Maxwell's equations, modeling a conducting bounded obstacle in free space, is considered as a coupled system of vectorial Helmholtz equations in the framework of integral equation methods. The geometric situation is assumed to match with the use of spheroidal coordinates and so that expansions into wave spheroidal functions can be employed. Three methods referred to as the method of separation of variables, the extended boundary condition method and the point matching method are used for determining expansion coefficients and the interconnectedness of these approaches is discussed. All methods are based on suitable choices of decompositions controlled by scalar potentials to simplify solving the system.