Coherent scattering of electromagnetic waves by self-organized dust structures: Degree of coherence

摘要

It is demonstrated explicitly that the scattering of electromagnetic waves by dust structures can be strongly enhanced as compared to incoherent scattering by random electrons. If the size of the dust structure is much less than the wavelength of the incident radiation, the scattering is coherent. In this case, the scattering is proportional to the square of the total number of electrons in the structure. In the opposite limit, the scattering is incoherent being proportional to the total number of electrons in the structure. The factor describing the degree of coherency is calculated numerically for several models of self-organized structures. It is demonstrated in general way that for sudden heating of electrons, the factor of coherency in scattering by structures can decrease by several orders of magnitude with subsequent increase after the heating is switched off. In laboratory dusty plasmas, the coherent scattering is proposed for diagnostics of universal structuring instability and as a probe for determining the properties typical for self-organized nature of structures that are observed in recent experiments. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.