Stochastic Scattering Approach To Determine Effective Packing Structure In Diffuse Optical Coatings

New developments in coating technology such as spray and multi-layer coatings and the desire for low basis weight materials challenge the conventional approach of understanding the optics of particle and particle packing. To be able to understand the ultimate performance of the coating before it is applied to the substrate from an optical standpoint would greatly enhance the design and development of these new coatings applications. To date these problems have been difficult to solve due to the complex relationship between the properties of the scattered field and the intrinsic structure. Dealing with structures arising from randomly packed particles requires specific statistical tools. Further, these structures are scale dependent specific to individual morphologies and accordingly provide unique optical signatures. We describe how these unique optical signatures can be measured and how these optical signatures are related to the intrinsic structure of these randomly packed optical coatings