A Detailed Study of the Scattering of Scalar Waves from Random Rough Surfaces

Abstract

A multiple scattering theory of scalar waves from random rough surfaces is presented. By using the Ewald-Oseen extinction theorem the scattering integral equation is solved by means of an expansion in σ powers (σ being the standard deviation of the corrugation). Values of the mean scattered intensity until the fourth order of σ are given. The quick convergence of this series for low σ permits us to deal with those situations of small roughness in which the Kirchhoff approximation given by Beckmann and Spizzichino [2] fails. These are the cases in which σ ≳ T and λ ≳ T (λ being the wavelength and T the surface correlation length). Thus this theory can give the intensity for white noise surfaces, and yields the conditions under which the single scattering Kirchhoff approximation works, as well as its percentage of error. As such it is shown that Beckmann's theory gives good results in all cases in which σ /T < 0·05 and, thus, the reason why it is valid for interpreting laser speckle measurements is given. A...