The interaction of light with matter is one of the most fundamental processes in the physical sciences. In particular, the interaction of visible light with submicron particles is of great interest to a variety of scientific disciplines. Over the years, extensive theoretical models have been developed to calculate the light scattering properties for a variety of particle shapes and sizes. While extensive progress has been realized on the theoretical front, experimental analysis for nonspherical particles has been lacking. This is largely due to difficulty synthesizing nonspherical colloidal particles with high monodispersity.

By taking advantage of a film stretching technique, we were able to synthesize large quantities of monodisperse polystyrene rod shaped particles with aspect ratios ranging from 1 to 9. The first study in this dissertation explores the incremental effects of changing particle shape on the total scattering cross-section and multi-angle intensity distribution. The second study investigates the relationship between particle shape and specular reflection properties for multilayered colloidal films comprised of identically shaped particles.