Circular Polarization and Coherent Backscattering

TL;DR

This paper extends existing models of polarization effects in scattering to include circular polarization, deriving the full Mueller matrix for Rayleigh particles and analyzing the characteristics of circular polarization peaks.

Contribution

It provides the first exact derivation of the Mueller matrix for circular polarization in Rayleigh scattering and compares the circular polarization peak to the intensity peak.

Findings

Circular polarization peak is narrower than the intensity peak.

Circular polarization peak is weaker in intensity.

The model completes the full Mueller matrix for the system.

Abstract

We extend the work of Mishchenko et al. (2000) regarding the exact results of the polarization effect, using the theory of Amic et al. (1997) to derive a model prediction for the polarization coherent opposition effect at small angles. Our extension is to assess the effect of circular polarized light, thus completing exact derivation of the full M\"uller matrix for the semi infinite slab of Rayleigh sized particles. We find the circular polarization peak is narrower than the coherent backscattering intensity peak, and weaker in intensity.