Electricity and Magnetism II - Homework Assignment 8

Alejandro Gomez Espinosa

April 9, 2013
Jackson, 10.3 A solid uniform sphere of radius R and conductivity acts as a scatterer of a plane-wave
beam of unpolarized radiation of frequency , with R/c 1. The conductivity is large enough that
the skin depth is small compared to R.
(a) Justify and use a magnetostatic scalar potential to determine the magnetic around the sphere,
assuming the conductivity is innite. (Remember that = 0.)
The condition of R/c 1 R represents the long-wavelenght region where we can
assume that the elds are constant when they go across the sphere. Then, we have to calculate
the uniform magnetic eld outside the sphere.
Since the region outside the sphere has no charges or currents J = 0 and therefore B = 0.
This means that we can dene a scalar magnetic potential as:
B = (1)
Using the other Maxwell equation:
B = () =
2
= 0 (2)
Now, our problem is analogous with the sphere place in an constant electric eld with azymuthal
symmetry. Using the result of this problem:
=

l=0
_
A
l
r
l
+
C
l
r
l+1
_
P
l
(cos ) (3)
In this solution, the eld is in the direction of z therefore: B = B z. In terms of the scalar
magnetic eld: = B z = Br cos . Hence:
Br cos =

l=0
_
A
l
r
l
+
C
l
r
l+1
_
P
l
(cos )
= A
0
+ A
1
r cos + ....

gomez@physics.rutgers.edu
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Therefore: A
1
= B and A
l
= 0 for l = 1. Then, at the surface of the sphere (r = R) the
normal magnetic eld is zero because it is a perfect conductor:
B n = 0

r=R
= 0

r
_
Br cos +
C
1
r
2
P
1
(cos )
_

r=R
= 0
B cos 2
C
1
R
3
cos = 0
C
1
=
BR
3
2
Finally, the scalar potential is given by:
= Br cos
BR
3
2r
2
cos (4)
and the magnetic eld:
B =
=
_

r
r +
1
r

__
Br cos
BR
3
2r
2
cos
_
= B cos
_
1
R
3
r
3
_
r B sin
_
1 +
R
3
2r
3
_

(5)
(b) Use the technique of Section 8.1 to determine the absorption cross section of the sphere. Show
that it varies as ()
1/2
provided is independent of frequency.
Using the time-averaged power absorbed per unit area of Section 8.1, equation (8.12) tell us
that:
dP
loss
da
=

c

4
|H

|
2
(6)
where =
_
2
c
_
1/2
is called the skin depth. Since the magnetic eld must be parallel to the
surface of the conductor, from equation (5) we take only the

part. Hence,
dP
loss
da
=

c

4
2
0

2
r=R
=

c

4
2
0

B sin
_
1 +
1
2
_

2
r=R
=
9
c
B
2
sin
2

16
2
0
(7)
2
THen, the power absorbed is given by:
P
loss
=
9
c
B
2
16
2
0
_
sin
2
r sin dr d d
=
9
c
B
2
16
2
0
2R
2
_

0
sin
3
d
=
9
c
B
2
R
2
8
2
0
_
4
3
_
=
3
c
B
2
R
2
4
2
0
Finally, the cross section is proportional to the power absorbed:

cross

3
c
B
2
R
2
4
2
0
=
3
c
B
2
R
2
4
2
0
_
2

_
1/2
=
3
c
B
2
R
2
4
2
0
_
2

_
1/2
where we can see that the cross section will vary as
1/2
.
Jackson, 10.9 In the scattering of light by a gas very near the critical point the scattered light is observed
to be whiter (i.e., its spectrum is less predominantly peaked toward the blue) than far from the
critical point. Show that this can be understood by the fact that the volumes of the density uctuations
become large enough that Rayleighs law fails to hold. In particular, consider the lowest order
approximation to the scattering by a uniform dielectric sphere of radius a whose dielectric constant

r
, diers only slightly from unity.
(a) Show that for ka 1, the dierential cross section is sharply peaked in the forward direction
and the total scattering cross section is approximately


2
(ka)
2
|
r
1|
2
a
2
(8)
with k
2
, rather than k
4
, dependence of frequency.
Considering the lowest order approximation, we can follow the Born approximation develop in
Jackson, Section 10.2b. Then, equation (10.31) at large wavelength is written as:

A
sc
D
0
= k
2
a
3

0
(

0
)
_
sin qa qa cos qa
(qa)
3
_
(9)
where q = k(n
0
n). Then, let us evaluate the terms in (9). The permitivity of the dielectric
sphere is given by:

0
= (
r
1) for r < a and = 0 r > a
The term in the brackets is the rst Bessel function:
sin qa qa cos qa
(qa)
2
= j
1
(qa)
3
Therefore, equation (9) now becomes:

A
sc
D
0
=
k
2
a
2
q
(
r
1)(

0
)j
1
(qa) (10)
and the dierential cross section is given by:
d
d
=

A
sc
D
0

2
=
k
4
a
4
q
2
(
r
1)
2
(

0
)
2
j
2
1
(qa)
=
k
4
a
4
q
2
(
r
1)
2
sin
2
j
2
1
(qa)
where is the angle between n
0
and n. Then, using the condition ka 1 and the denition of
q, we can easily see that is equivalent to the condition qa 1 except in the forward scattering
cone given by 1/ka.
The total cross section is then:
=
_
k
4
a
4
q
2
(
r
1)
2
sin
2
j
2
1
(qa) d
=
_
2
0
_
1
1
k
4
a
4
q
2
(
r
1)
2
_
1 + cos
2

2
_
j
2
1
(qa) d(cos ) d
=
_
1
1
2k
4
a
4
q
2
(
r
1)
2
_
1 + cos
2

2
_
j
2
1
(qa) d(cos )
2k
4
a
6
(
r
1)
2
_
ka
0
j
2
1
(qa)
(qa)
2
d(qa) if
1
ka
1
=

2
k
2
a
4
(
r
1)
2
where the last integral was calculated using Mathematica.
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