On the depolarized Rayleigh scattering from macromolecular and colloidal solutions — Anisotropy of the diffusional broadening

The width of the depolarized Rayleigh line for the light scattered from a solution of non-spherical particles is calculated from a generalized diffusion equation. Due to the correlation between the translational motion and the orientation of the particles, the diffusional contribution to the width is anisotropic, i.e. the relevant effective diffusion coefficient depends on the scattering angle and on the polarization vectors. This anisotropy is related to the shape of the particles.