Silica Glass Spheres as Omnidirectional Microwave Retroreflectors

Kurzfassung

Homogeneous dielectric spheres are typically weak reflectors too, and a metallization of a portion of their surface is necessary to improve their performance, similarly to the cat’s eye optical reflectors. A spectacular exception is a sphere from silica glass. The paper will describe microwave properties of silica glasses, the theory of electromagnetic scattering from low-loss dielectric spheres and the results of experimental studies of the silica glass spherical retroreflectors.