We illustrate some numerical applications of a recently derived semianalytic method for calculating the T matrix of a sphere composed of an arbitrary anisotropic medium with or without losses. This theory is essentially an extension of Mie theory of the diffraction by an isotropic sphere. We use this theory to verify a long-standing conjecture by Bohren and Huffman that the extinction cross section of an orientation-averaged anisotropic sphere is not simply the average of the extinction cross

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... ctions of three isotropic spheres, each having a refractive index equal to that of one of the principal axes. We assume a sphere composed of a uniform anisotropic, nonmagnetic media ͑ = 0 ͒, and allow the relative dielec-1084-7529/07/041120-11/$15.00