Electromagnetic scattering beyond the weak regime: Solving the problem of divergent Born perturbation series by Padé approximants

Abstract

Electromagnetic scattering is the main phenomenon behind all optical measurement methods where one aims to retrieve the shape or physical properties of an unknown object by measuring how it scatters an incident optical field. Such an inverse problem is often approached by solving, several times, the corresponding direct scattering problem and trying to find the best estimate of the object which is compatible with a set of measurements. Despite the existence of numerical methods, a powerful way to solve those direct problems would be to use a perturbation approach where the field is expressed as a series, known as the Born series. The advantage of a perturbation approach stems from the fact that each term of the series has a clear physical meaning and can unveil much more about the scattering process than a purely numerical approach can offer. This method is however unpractical under so-called strong-scattering conditions because the corresponding Born series strongly diverges. In this work, we will show how to solve this problem by employing Padé approximants and how to treat electromagnetic problems well beyond the weak-scattering regime. This approach can represent an important building block to the application of the Born series to direct and inverse problems, with potential applications in superresolution, optical metrology, and phase retrieval.