Revised scattering exponents for a power-law distribution of surface and mass fractals

Abstract: We consider scattering exponents arising in small-angle scattering from power-law polydisperse surface and mass fractals. It is shown that a set of fractals, whose sizes are distributed according to a power-law, can change its fractal dimension when the power-law exponent is sufficiently big. As a result, the scattering exponent corresponding to this dimension appears due to the spatial correlations between positions of different fractals. For large values of the momentum transfer, the correlations do not play any role, and the resulting scattering intensity is given by a sum of intensities of all composing fractals. The restrictions imposed on the power-law exponents are found. The obtained results generalize Martin's formulas for the scattering exponents of the polydisperse fractals.