Degree of polarization of light scattered from correlated surface and bulk disorders

Abstract

Using a single-scattering theory, we derive the expression of the degree of polarization of the light scattered from a layer exhibiting both surface and volume scattering. The expression puts forward the intimate connection between the degree of polarization and the statistical correlation between surface and volume disorders. It also permits a quantitative analysis of depolarization for uncorrelated, partially correlated and perfectly correlated disorders. We show that measuring the degree of polarization could allow one to assess the surface-volume correlation function, and that, reciprocally, the degree of polarization could be engineered by an appropriate design of the correlation function.

arXiv comment11 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Calculation of all elements of the Mueller matrix for scattering of light from a two-dimensional randomly rough metal surface
• Single scattering of polarized light by correlated surface and volume disorder
• Physics of polarized light scattering from weakly rough dielectric surfaces: Yoneda and Brewster scattering phenomena
• Perfect depolarization in single scattering of light from uncorrelated surface and volume disorder