Optical techniques for the characterization of non-spherical and non-homogeneous particles: introductory article

Interest in the characterization of non-spherical and/or non-homogeneous particles has increased dramatically in recent years from a wide variety of application areas. For characterization by optical means, several essential elements are identified and briefly discussed, with some indication of their respective state-of-the-art. This article serves as an introduction to a special section containing eight other articles and attempts to put the contributions into perspective with respect to the overall problem. (Original abstract)