Output example: Field distribution inside layered Si\Ag\Si sphere and Poynting vector distribution in Ag sphere with powerflow lines calculated with Scattnlay (scripts field-SiAgSi-flow.py and field-Ag-flow.py from example section as revision ).

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AI era

• Version 2.5 (Dec 2025) Completed migration to CMake, added SIMD acceleration using Google Highway.

Stable releases

• Version 2.4 (Apr 10, 2024) The last hand-made release.
• Version 2.0.1 (Jan 17, 2017).
• Version 2.0.0 (Apr 1, 2016).
• Version 1.0.0 (Nov 22, 2014).

How to use scattnlay

Table of contents:

• Mie theory calculator web application
• Compile code
• Binary install
• Use
• Papers
• Acknowledgment
• License

Mie theory calculator web application

Limited web version is available at https://physics.ifmo.ru/mie/

Compile Code

To compile the source you will need a C++11 capable compiler.

Dependencies

MultiPrecision (Optional):

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install libboost-all-dev
• macOS: brew install boost

SIMD Acceleration (Optional, Recommended):

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install libhwy-dev
• macOS: brew install highway

To compile the Python extension you need NumPy:

• python-numpy (>= 1.0)
• python-all-dev (any version)
• python-numpy-dev (any version)

and pybind11 (should be installed automatically via pyproject.toml)

And to compile the Debian package you need some tools:

• debhelper (>=7.0.0)
• dh-python (any version)
• cdbs (>= 0.4.49)

Compilation options

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -B build -S .
cmake --build build

To build WebAssembly target (requires Emscripten):

emcmake cmake -B build_wasm -S .
cmake --build build_wasm

Python module

To build and install Python module run from the source code directory (SIMD support is enabled automatically if Highway is found):

```bash
pip install .

SIMD Benchmark

To verify performance gains:

python examples/calc-simd-benchmark.py

Binary install

Binary files for Ubuntu and derivative distributions can be found at Launchpad To install it you must configure the repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ovidio/scattering
sudo apt update

and then you simply install the package:

sudo apt install python-scattnlay

You can also install it from PyPi via

sudo pip install scattnlay

You can also git clone and python3 -m pip install -e . to develop python package.

Use

1. Python library

• Use scattnlay directly

from scattnlay import scattnlay, fieldnlay
...
x = ...
m = ...
coords = ...
terms, Qext, Qsca, Qabs, Qbk, Qpr, g, Albedo, S1, S2 = scattnlay(x, m)
terms, E, H = fieldnlay(x, m, coords)
...

• Execute some of the test scripts (located in the folder 'tests/python') Example:

./test01.py

2. Standalone program

• Execute scattnlay directly:

scattnlay -l Layers x1 m1.r m1.i [x2 m2.r m2.i ...] [-t ti tf nt] [-c comment]

• Execute fieldnlay directly:

fieldnlay -l Layers x1 m1.r m1.i [x2 m2.r m2.i ...] -p xi xf nx yi yf ny zi zf nz [-c comment]

• Execute some of the test scripts (located in the folder 'tests/shell'):

./test01.sh > test01.csv

3. C++ library

Scattnlay "Hello world!" example:

    try {
      nmie::MultiLayerMieApplied<double> multi_layer_mie; 
      multi_layer_mie.AddTargetLayer(core_width, index_Si);
      multi_layer_mie.AddTargetLayer(inner_width, index_Ag);
      multi_layer_mie.AddTargetLayer(outer_width, index_Si);
      multi_layer_mie.SetWavelength(WL);
      multi_layer_mie.RunMieCalculation();
      double Qabs = multi_layer_mie.GetQabs();
      printf("Qabs = %g\n", Qabs);
    } catch( const std::invalid_argument& ia ) {
      // Will catch if  multi_layer_mie fails or other errors.
      std::cerr << "Invalid argument: " << ia.what() << std::endl;
      return -1;
    }

The complete example-minimal.cc and a bit more complicated example-get-Mie.cc can be found in example directory along with go-cc-examples.sh script with build commands.

example-get-Mie.cc can be compiled using double precision or multiple precision (just include -DMULTI_PRECISION=200 to use 200 digits for calculations).

Related papers

1. O. Peña and U. Pal, "Scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a multilayered sphere," Comput. Phys. Commun. 180, 2348-2354 (2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2009.07.010

2. K. Ladutenko, O. Peña-Rodríguez, I. Melchakova, I. Yagupov and P. Belov, "Reduction of scattering using thin all-dielectric shells designed by stochastic optimizer," J. Appl. Phys. 116, 184508 (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4900529

3. K. Ladutenko, P. Belov, O. Peña-Rodríguez, A. Mirzaei, A. Miroshnichenko and I. Shadrivov, "Superabsorption of light by nanoparticles," Nanoscale 7, 18897-18901 (2015). http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5NR05468K

4. K. Ladutenko, U. Pal, A. Rivera, and O. Peña-Rodríguez, "Mie calculation of electromagnetic near-field for a multilayered sphere," Comp. Phys. Comm. 214, 225-230 (2017). http://dx.doi.org/j.cpc.2017.01.017

Acknowledgment

We expect that all publications describing work using this software, or all commercial products using it, cite at least one of the following references:

[1] O. Peña and U. Pal, "Scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a multilayered sphere," Computer Physics Communications, vol. 180, Nov. 2009, pp. 2348-2354.

[2] K. Ladutenko, U. Pal, A. Rivera and O. Peña-Rodríguez, "Mie calculation of electromagnetic near-field for a multilayered sphere," Computer Physics Communications, vol. 214, May 2017, pp. 225-230.

License

GPL v3+