Simulating polarization characteristics of arbitrary-layer target systems’ infrared radiation by photon tracing strategy

Abstract

It remains a big challenge to simulate and perceive polarization characteristics of coated targets’ infrared radiations, especially for the targets coated with several layers. In this paper, an arbitrary-layer radiational target system model (ARTSmodel) is constructed based on photon trace strategy (PTS) and Monte Carlo algorithm (MCA) to resolve this problem by continually tracing the evolution of the radiating photons’ state of polarization (SoP). In the proposed ARTSmodel, multiple scattering events among different coat layers are well represented, and the wide-band property of the radiations is accounted as well. Additionally, the infrared radiations are regarded as photon packages, and continually traced until they leave the topmost layer and get captured by the sensors bestrewing the entirely upper hemisphere space, whose values will form an upper-hemisphere-space polarization data (UPD) distribution. The UPD is compared with the analytic method and empirical data, and the consistency of results evidences the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed model. Moreover, the UPD and its representation in the Poincare sphere demonstrate that the proposed model provides a new and practicable way to coated target identification and analysis.