Polarization of light and its use in various problems of optics of scattering media

Abstract

As light passes through scattering media, certain specific features of the polarization of radiation manifest themselves. The paper presents materials on this problem that were obtained at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus over recent decades. Results of experimental investigations of media that model real objects are described for the case where the dimensionless optical parameters of media and objects coincide. A method for determining the position of a diffuse light source in the atmosphere via predominant oscillations of the light vector of scattered radiation for two directions of observation is proposed. The structure of aerosol formations (smokes, dust and liquid-droplet and crystalline clouds) is interpreted based on the character of depolarization of laser radiation sounding atmosphere. The polarization of laser radiation passing through a turbid medium and reflected from it is studied. Practical applications are proposed. Fundamentals of an applied vector theory of radiation transfer, which made it possible to considerably expand notions of light scattering in strongly turbid media, are given. Studies of light propagation in encapsulated liquid crystals, which are used for solving of a large number of problems, are described. In these objects, ordinary and extraordinary rays that arise in crystals under electric voltage can give rise to a wave that is attenuated to a different degree and whose phase and polarization characteristics are varying.