Scattering of an electromagnetic plane wave by a homogeneous sphere made of an orthorhombic dielectric-magnetic material

An exact transition matrix was formulated for electromagnetic scattering by an orthorhombic dielectric-magnetic sphere whose permeability dyadic is a scalar multiple of its permittivity dyadic. Calculations were made for plane waves incident on the sphere. As the size parameter increases, the role of anisotropy evolves; multiple lobes appear in the plots of the differential scattering efficiency in any scattering plane; the total scattering, extinction, and forward-scattering efficiencies exhibit a prominent maximum each; and the absorption efficiency generally increases with weak undulations. Certain orientations of the sphere with respect to the directions of propagation and the electric field of the incident plane wave make it highly susceptible to detection in a monostatic configuration, whereas other orientations make it much less vulnerable to detection. Impedance match to the ambient free space decreases backscattering efficiency significantly, although anisotropy prevents null backscattering.