Impact of light polarization on angle-resolved light scattering from gloss scale

Abstract

The gloss scale is a set of coated paper samples with different surface roughness allowing for appearance variation from high gloss to mat. Nowadays, the gloss scale is widely used as a reference on visual appearance of glossy and mat surfaces. This work provides for angle resolved analysis of light scattering from gloss scales as well as the analysis of the surface topography parameters relevant for the analysis of light-scattering experiments: RMS-roughness σ, auto-correlation function and power spectrum density, correlation length ℓ c and surface slopes. The angle–resolved measurements of light scattered in reflection within the half–space are performed at 4 angles of incidence, while measurements within the incidence plane are made at 17 angles of incidence and under non–polarized, s–and p–polarized illumination. The polarization of incident light has a significant impact on both the specular and the diffused components of scattered light. Brewster scattering angle is especially well observed for black mat surfaces. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of measured scattered light is made with Rayleigh-Rice and Kirchhoff models applied to statistically representative analysis of surface topography.