Perfect depolarization in single scattering of light from uncorrelated surface and volume disorder

Opt Lett. 2020 Dec 1;45(23):6354-6357. doi: 10.1364/OL.405182.

Abstract

We demonstrate that single scattering of p-polarized waves from uncorrelated surface and volume disorder can lead to perfect depolarization. The degree of polarization vanishes in specific scattering directions that can be characterized based on simple geometric arguments. Depolarization results from a different polarization response of each source of disorder, which provides a clear physical interpretation of the depolarization mechanism.