Anomalous depolarizing properties of a disordered ensemble of resonant Mie particles

Abstract

The depolarization of multiply scattered light in a disordered system of resonant dielectric Mie particles is studied. It is shown that the depolarization length of circularly polarized light under the first Kerker condition can be more than an order of magnitude larger than the transport length. Such a slow decay of circular polarization in a multiply scattering medium results in the enhancement of mesoscopic fluctuations of the transmission coefficient. The wavelength dependence of the variance of the transmission coefficient near the first Kerker point has a quasiresonant character. It is demonstrated that the second Kerker condition under which the forward scattering vanishes is satisfied with an increase in the refractive index. The depolarization lengths of circularly and linearly polarized light calculated for this case are minimal and almost coincide with the mean free path.