Welcome to the Interactive Mie Scattering Calculator

Mie scattering, named after the physicist Gustav Mie describes the scattering of plane waves of light by spheres. The code used to make these calculations is available at GitHub repository.

If the sphere strongly absorbs light then you'll need to use the imaginary index of refraction (metallic spheres are very absorbing). By convention the imaginary index of refraction is entered as a negative number. If \(\mu_a\) is the depth that light attenuates to 1/e of its original intensity in a bulk media, then

\[m_\mathrm{imaginary} = \kappa =- \frac{\lambda_\mathrm{vacuum} \cdot \mu_a}{4\pi}\]

The concentration units are a bit weird but you can adapt; the concentration is only used for calculating the scattering and absorption coefficients for a medium with this concentration of independent scattering spheres. Finally, if the spheres are in something other than a vacuum, you may want to adjust the refractive index of the environment.


Sphere diameter microns
Wavelength in vacuum microns
Real refractive index of sphere
Imaginary refractive index (negative!)
Refractive index of environment
Number of angles
Concentration spheres/micron³