PyMieSim: an open-source library for fast and flexible far-field Mie scattering simulations

Abstract

Mie scattering simulations are essential to designing sensing and imaging devices for atmospheric and biomedical sciences applications. Current simulators based on Lorenz-Mie theory allow obtaining scattering phase functions for several scatterer geometries. Still, they are not optimized for simulating ranging parameters and do not compute coupling powers into coherent or incoherent detectors. Here, we present PyMieSim: a Python interface wrapping a C++ parallelized core for a fast, flexible, and highly visual simulation package, allowing for the study of ranges of parameters for different source, scatterer, and detector configurations. We demonstrate two applications: flow-cytometry geometry optimization and few-mode optical coherence tomography contrast analysis.