The local electric field. I. The effect on isotropic and anisotropic Rayleigh scattering

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Abstract
Isotropic and anisotropic Rayleigh light scattering intensities are reported for seven liquids. Anisotropic intensities as a function of refractive index for four molecules are also reported. We have used spectral analysis to separate the single molecule scattering from the complicating effects of collisional scattering and static pair correlations. Several macroscopic continuum models for the local electric field at a molecule in a liquid phase are summarized and these theoretical models are compared with our experimental results for scattering from single molecules. We have established the equivalence of the local field correction calculated from a fourth‐power local field with that calculated from the dielectric fluctuation method for all models. We further show that of these local field corrections, only that calculated by the ellipsoidal Onsager–Scholte model is consistent with all our experimental data. The size and shape parameters of these models are related to molecular parameters.