Quasi-elastic light scattering from structured particles.

We present a formulation by which the scattered field correlation function of a nonstationary structured particle can be calculated. Specifically, we consider the case of micron-size bacteria, where the Rayleigh- Gans-Debye approximation may be used to evaluate the correlation function. We show that the width of the intensity correlation spectrum (as measured, for example, by the photon correlation technique) exhibits I an oscillatory behavior which is characteristic of the interference pattern produced by the internal structure. Two cases are of interest: diffusion and motility are considered in detail, and some evidence of the predicted behavior is shown from the photon correlation measurement of E. coli bacteria.