Model calculations of intramolecular interference effects in Rayleigh scattering from solutions of macromolecules

Abstract

We present an algorithm for seven of the ten observables that govern polarized elastic light scattering from dilute solutions of rigid anisotropic structures of arbitrary size and shape. The algorithm implements the theory of optical interference of electric dipole radiation scattered from different subunits of the structure with exact analytic averaging over all orientations of the whole structure. The phases of the incident and scattered waves are included in the average, and results are exact at all scattering angles. Model calculations show that the polarization observables may carry structural information for scatterers smaller than the optical resolving limit.