Spectral changes produced by polychromatic partially coherent radially polarized beams scattered from a semisoft boundary medium

Abstract

In this paper, the scattering theory was, for the first time to our knowledge, introduced to investigate the scattering of polychromatic partially coherent radially polarized beams from a semisoft boundary medium, and a novel and interesting spectral change, multiple spectral switches, was discovered. Within the accuracy of the first-order Born approximation, the spectral density expression for the targeted light wave scattered from a semisoft boundary medium in the far zone was derived and used to examine the evolution of spectral shifts and multiple spectral switches. The influences of the scattering medium’s parameters and the source’s parameters on the spectral shifts, multiple spectral switches, and evolution of relative spectral shifts versus scattering angle were investigated in detail. It is noteworthy that the first-proposed definition of the critical scattering angle at which a spectrum switch would take place would bring convenience for discussing spectral changes. The meaningful results obtained here could further enrich scattering theory and find applications in astronomy, optical computing, and back-analyzing the structural information of scattering objects.