Backscattering Phenomenon Research Articles

Observation of coherent backscattering ‘factor of three’ in a numerical experiment

We study coherent backscattering of light by nonlinear scatterers in the weakly nonlinear regime. We compare full numerical calculations with a diagrammatic approach; the validity of the latter is demonstrated by the excellent agreement between these two approaches. Especially it emphasizes the fact that, in the weakly nonlinear regime, the coherent backscattering phenomenon originates, in general, from the interference between three different scattering amplitudes. This effect reveals itself in the first nonlinear correction of the backscattered intensity, which is enhanced by almost a factor three as compared to the diffuse background.

Analysis of Backscattering Phenomenon from Drain Region in Silicon Decanano Diode

We have analyzed the backscattering phenomenon from a drain region of a silicon (Si) decanano diode to investigate the backscattering effect on the characteristics of such a Si decanano device. Ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) simulation is employed for considering the scattering effect with backscattered electrons from the drain region. The results of the numerical experiment revealed the following noteworthy conclusions. The count and rate of scattering with the backscattered electrons are low, even near a drain edge in a channel of the Si decanano diode. The average velocity of injected electrons from a source region in the channel is little degraded by scattering with the backscattered electrons from the drain region. Furthermore, the average velocity of all electrons in the channel significantly decreases near the drain edge due to the presence of very slow backscattered electrons as an average. Since the presence of backscattered electrons strongly degrades the performance of decanano devices, we believe it is increasingly important to analyze the backscattering phenomenon from the drain region, with the progress of the miniaturization of the decanano device.

Coherent backscattering effects for discrete random media: Numerical and theoretical results

Manifestation of the backscattering enhancement phenomenon in the reflection matrix elements of the coherent component of scattered radiation is considered. The dependence of the coherent backscattering effects on the microphysical properties of the medium scatterers are investigated. It is shown that random media of fractal-like clusters exhibit brightness and polarization opposition effects, which are like those observed for some atmosphereless Solar system bodies. Conditions for a bimodal angle dependence in the degree of linear polarization are discussed and the manifestation of the enhanced backscattering phenomenon in the intensity of scattered radiation is studied.

SAR amplitude probability density function estimation based on a generalized Gaussian model

In the context of remotely sensed data analysis, an important problem is the development of accurate models for the statistics of the pixel intensities. Focusing on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, this modeling process turns out to be a crucial task, for instance, for classification or for denoising purposes. In this paper, an innovative parametric estimation methodology for SAR amplitude data is proposed that adopts a generalized Gaussian (GG) model for the complex SAR backscattered signal. A closed-form expression for the corresponding amplitude probability density function (PDF) is derived and a specific parameter estimation algorithm is developed in order to deal with the proposed model. Specifically, the recently proposed "method-of-log-cumulants" (MoLC) is applied, which stems from the adoption of the Mellin transform (instead of the usual Fourier transform) in the computation of characteristic functions and from the corresponding generalization of the concepts of moment and cumulant. For the developed GG-based amplitude model, the resulting MoLC estimates turn out to be numerically feasible and are also analytically proved to be consistent. The proposed parametric approach was validated by using several real ERS-1, XSAR, E-SAR, and NASA/JPL airborne SAR images, and the experimental results prove that the method models the amplitude PDF better than several previously proposed parametric models for backscattering phenomena.

Backscattering enhancement of light by nanoparticles positioned in localized optical intensity peaks

We report what we believe to be a novel backscattering phenomenon associated with localized optical intensity peaks (spanning as little as 43 nm) arising at the shadow-side surfaces of plane-wave-illuminated dielectric microcylinders of noncircular cross sections. Namely, for nanometer-scale dielectric particles positioned within the localized intensity peaks, their backscattering of visible light is enhanced by several orders of magnitude relative to the case of isolated nanoparticles (i.e., Rayleigh scattering). The positions of the localized intensity peaks can be quickly scanned along the microcylinder surface by changing either the incident wavelength or angle. This combination of giant backscattering enhancement of nanoparticles and ease and rapidity of scanning may present advantages relative to the use of fragile, mechanically scanned, near-field probes. Potential applications include visible-light detection, characterization, and manipulation of nanoparticles.

Numerical evidence of backscattering in approximants of quasicrystals

We compute the velocity correlation function of electronic states close to the Fermi energy, in approximants of quasicrystals. As we show, the long time value of this correlation function is small. This means a small Fermi velocity, in agreement with previous band structure studies. Furthermore, the correlation function is negative on a large time interval, which means a phenomenon of backscattering. As shown in previous studies, the backscattering can explain unusual conduction properties observed in these alloys, such as the increase of conductivity with disorder.

Coherent backscattering of light with nonlinear atomic scatterers

We study coherent backscattering of a monochromatic laser by a dilute gas of cold two-level atoms in the weakly nonlinear regime. The nonlinear response of the atoms results in a modification of both the average field propagation (nonlinear refractive index) and the scattering events. Using a perturbative approach, the nonlinear effects arise from inelastic two-photon scattering processes. We present a detailed diagrammatic derivation of the elastic and inelastic components of the backscattering signal for both scalar and vectorial photons. In particular, we show that the coherent backscattering phenomenon originates in some cases from the interference between three different scattering amplitudes. This is in marked contrast with the linear regime where it is due to the interference between two different scattering amplitudes. In particular we show that, if elastically scattered photons are filtered out from the photodetection signal, the nonlinear backscattering enhancement factor exceeds the linear barrier of 2, consistently with a three-amplitude interference effect.

Coherent backscattering of singular beams

The phenomenon of coherent backscattering depends on both the statistical characteristics of a random scattering medium and the correlation features of the incident field. Imposing a wavefront singularity on the incident field offers a unique and very attractive way to modify the field correlations in a deterministic manner. The field correlations are found to act as a path-length filter which modifies the distribution of different contributions to the enhancement cone. This effect is thoroughly discussed and demonstrated experimentally for the case of single scale scattering systems.

Lidar and Triple-Wavelength Doppler Radar Measurements of the Melting Layer: A Revised Model for Dark- and Brightband Phenomena

Abstract During the recent Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers (CRYSTAL) Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (FACE) field campaign in southern Florida, rain showers were probed by a 0.523-μm lidar and three (0.32-, 0.86-, and 10.6-cm wavelength) Doppler radars. The full repertoire of backscattering phenomena was observed in the melting region, that is, the various lidar and radar dark and bright bands. In contrast to the ubiquitous 10.6-cm (S band) radar bright band, only intermittent evidence is found at 0.86 cm (K band), and no clear examples of the radar bright band are seen at 0.32 cm (W band), because of the dominance of non-Rayleigh scattering effects. Analysis also reveals that the relatively inconspicuous W-band radar dark band is due to non-Rayleigh effects in large water-coated snowflakes that are high in the melting layer. The lidar dark band exclusively involves mixed-phase particles and is centered where the shrinking snowflakes collapse into raindrops—the point at which spherical particle backscattering mechanisms first come into prominence during snowflake melting. The traditional (S band) radar brightband peak occurs low in the melting region, just above the lidar dark-band minimum. This position is close to where the W-band reflectivities and Doppler velocities reach their plateaus but is well above the height at which the S-band Doppler velocities stop increasing. Thus, the classic radar bright band is dominated by Rayleigh dielectric scattering effects in the few largest melting snowflakes.

Low-coherent backscattering spectroscopy for tissue characterization

Although the phenomenon of coherent backscattering (CBS) in nonbiological media has generated substantial research interest, observing CBS in biological tissue has been extremely difficult. Here we show that the combination of low-spatial-coherence, broadband illumination, and low-temporal-coherence, spectrally resolved detection significantly facilitates CBS observation in biological tissue and other random media with long-transport mean-free path lengths, which have been previously beyond the reach of conventional CBS investigations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that depth-selective, speckle-free, low-coherent backscattering spectroscopy has the potential to diagnose the earliest, previously undetectable, precancerous alterations in the colon by means of probing short light paths.

Optical analysis of nanoparticles via enhanced backscattering facilitated by 3-D photonic nanojets

We report the phenomenon of ultra-enhanced backscattering of visible light by nanoparticles facilitated by the 3-D photonic nanojet - a sub-diffraction light beam appearing at the shadow side of a plane-waveilluminated dielectric microsphere. Our rigorous numerical simulations show that backscattering intensity of nanoparticles can be enhanced up to eight orders of magnitude when locating in the nanojet. As a result, the enhanced backscattering from a nanoparticle with diameter on the order of 10 nm is well above the background signal generated by the dielectric microsphere itself. We also report that nanojet-enhanced backscattering is extremely sensitive to the size of the nanoparticle, permitting in principle resolving sub-nanometer size differences using visible light. Finally, we show how the position of a nanoparticle could be determined with subdiffractional accuracy by recording the angular distribution of the backscattered light. These properties of photonic nanojets promise to make this phenomenon a useful tool for optically detecting, differentiating, and sorting nanoparticles.

Grazing angle enhanced backscattering from a dielectric film on a reflecting metal substrate

We have recently observed several features from a randomly rough dielectric film on a reflecting metal substrate including a change in the spectrum of light at the satellite peaks, the high-order correlation, and enhanced backscattering from the grazing angle. In this paper, we focus on the enhanced backscattering phenomena. The backscattering signal at small grazing angles is very important for vehicle re-entrance and subsurface radar sensing applications. Recently, we performed an experimental study of far-field scattering at small grazing angles, espe- cially enhanced backscattering at grazing angles. For a randomly weak, rough dielectric film on a reflecting metal substrate, a much larger en- hanced backscattering peak is measured. Experimental results are com- pared with theoretical predictions based on a two-scale surface rough- ness scattering model. © 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Influence of surface and vegetation characteristics on C-band radar measurements for soil moisture content

Soil moisture estimation using microwave remote sensing faces challenges of the segregation of influences mainly from roughness and vegetation. Under static surface conditions, it was found that Radarsat C-band SAR shows reasonably good correlation and sensitivity with changing soil moisture. Dynamic surface and vegetation conditions are supposed to result in a substantial reduction in radar sensitivity to soil moisture. A C-band scatterometer system (5.2 GHz) with a multi-polarization and multi-angular configuration was used 12 times to sense the soil moisture over a tall vegetated grass field. A score of vegetation and soil parameters were recorded on every occasion of the experiment. Three radar backscattering models Viz., Integral Equation Model (IEM), an empirical model and a volume scattering model, have been used to predict the backscattering phenomena. The volume scattering model, using the Distorted Born Approximation, is found to predict the backscattering phenomena reasonably well. But the surface scattering models are expectedly found to be inadequate for the purpose. The temporal variation of soil moisture does show good empirical relationship with the observed radar backscattering. But as the vegetation biomass increases, the radar shows higher sensitivity to the vegetation parameters compared to surface characteristics. A sensitivity analysis of the volume scattering model for all the parameters also reveals that the radar is more sensitive to plant parameters under high biomass conditions, particularly vegetation water content, but the sensitivity to surface characteristics, particularly to soil moisture, is also appreciable.

Enhanced resonant backscattering of excitons in disordered quantum wells.

A clear signature of enhanced backscattering of excitons is observed in the directional resonant Rayleigh scattering of light from localized two-dimensional excitons in disordered quantum wells. Its spectral dependence and time dynamics are measured and theoretically predicted in a quantitative way. The intensity enhancement has a large momentum span extending beyond the external light emission cone. This is a consequence of the small localization length of the exciton as a massive particle probed close to the band bottom. The localization length can be controlled by the photon kinetic energy. This constitutes a qualitative difference to backscattering phenomena in other branches of physics.

Influence of enhanced backscattering phenomenon on laser measurements of dust and aerosols content in a turbulent atmosphere

Influence of enhanced backscattering effect on laser measurements of dust and aerosols content in a turbulent atmosphere is discussed. It is shown that doubling of the backscattered light intensity, characteristic for enhanced backscattering leads to overestimating dust content in the air. To avoid undesirable effect of overestimation of dust and aerosols it is recommended to displace receiving aperture sidewise relatively to source and to use wider laser beam and extended receiving aperture as compared to coherence radius of the scattered wave field.

Advancements in codes for computer aided design of depressed collectors and tracing of backscattered electrons-part ii: improvements in modeling of the physics of secondary electron emission and backscattering

The BSCAT computer code being developed by us for the design of depressed collectors for gyrotrons employs a special algorithm for tracing the trajectories of backscattered electrons. Monte Carlo techniques are used on a large ensemble of rays to ensure accurate representation of the stochastic process. Recent work has focused on improvement of the modeling of the electron backscatter phenomenon itself. We have introduced more accurate models for the backscatter coefficients for true secondaries, as well as elastically and inelastically backscattered primaries. These models are adapted to the energy ranges and the angles of incidence of the primaries. They are linked with experimental data as available in current literature or with Monte Carlo simulations. Analytical representations have been used where they closely approximate the experimental or simulation data, in an effort to make the computation as versatile and computationally inexpensive as feasible. The same has been done for angular and energy distributions of the emitted electrons.

NEAR Infrared Spectrometer Photometry of Asteroid 433 Eros

We present near-infrared spectrometer (NIS) observations (0.8 to 2.4 μm) of the S-type asteroid 433 Eros obtained by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft and report results of our Hapke photometric model analysis of data obtained at phase angles ranging from 1.2° to 111.0° and at spatial resolutions of 1.25×2.5 to 2.75×5.5 km/spectrum. Our Hapke model fits successfully to the NEAR spectroscopic data for systematic color variations that accompany changing viewing and illumination geometry. Model parameters imply a geometric albedo at 0.946 μm of 0.27±0.04, which corresponds to a geometric albedo at 0.550 μm of 0.25±0.05. We find that Eros exhibits phase reddening of up to 10% across the phase angle range of 0–100°. We observe a 10% increase in the 1-μm band depth at high phase angles. In contrast, we observe only a 5% increase in continuum slope from 1.486 to 2.363 μm and essentially no difference in the 2-μm band depth at higher phase angles. These contrasting phase effects imply that there are phase-dependent differences in the parametric measurements of 1- and 2-μm band areas, and in their ratio. The Hapke model fits suggest that Eros exhibits a weaker opposition surge than either 951 Gaspra or 243 Ida (the only other S-type asteroids for which we possess disk-resolved photometric observations). On average, we find that Eros at 0.946 μm has a higher geometric albedo and a higher single-scatter albedo than Gaspra or Ida at 0.56 μm; however, Eros's single-particle phase function asymmetry and average surface macroscopic roughness parameters are intermediate between Gaspra and Ida. Only two of the five Hapke model parameters exhibit a notable wavelength dependence: (1) The single-scatter albedo mimics the spectrum of Eros, and (2) there is a decrease in angular width of the opposition surge with increasing wavelength from 0.8 to 1.7 μm. Such opposition surge behavior is not adequately modeled with our shadow-hiding Hapke model, consistent with coherent backscattering phenomena near zero phase.

Charged dust in the Earth's middle atmosphere

We discuss the few existing in situ rocket observations of dust and plasma during the radar backscatter phenomenon Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSE). We show from one recent observation, where the rocket flew directly through the radar beam during observation of a PMSE, that there is a very good correspondence between the charge density of dust layer and the PMSE. A surprising observation is that only a small amount of charged dust can be associated with a considerable PMSE signal strength. By estimating the relationship between radar backscatter and dust charge density for other rocket measurements we have found a total relationship between radar backscatter strength and dust charge density. This shows a rapid increase of radar backscatter strength at low NdZd, a more or less constant level for a considerable range in NdZd and a decrease to low values for large values of NdZd where most of the negative charge will be on the dust.

K-0303 非発散正規直交ウェーブレット関数の乱流の解析への応用(S01-2 ウェーヴレットの最新応用(2))(S01 ウェーヴレットの最新応用)

Using orthonormal, divergence-free wavelets, which is given by unitary trasform of complex helical waves, we analysed a homogeneous, isotropic turbulence data obtained by a direct numerical simulation. Three-dimensional wavelet analysis requires such novel representations of wavelet spectra that represents the spatial location and amplitude, so we developed the ball representation of spectrum. Ball representation of wavelet spectrum reveals that kinetic energy of turbulence transfers not only to the small scales but also to the larger scales with almost same order of amplitude, i.e., backscatter phenomena actively occurs.

The Opposition Effect in Simulated Planetary Regoliths. Reflectance and Circular Polarization Ratio Change at Small Phase Angle

We measured the change in reflectance and in circular polarization ratio with respect to phase angle of a suite of well-sorted, highly reflective, aluminum oxide powders for the purpose of understanding the contribution of the coherent backscattering phenomenon to the reflectance phase curves of planetary regoliths. The goniometric photopolarimeter that we used measured reflectance and circular polarization ratio over the range of phase angles from 0.05° to 5° where it has been suggested that coherent backscattering becomes important. The particle size of the samples varied from 0.1 to 30 μm. The wavelength of the illuminating radiation from a HeNe laser was 0.633 μm. We find that the reflectance at 0.05° is weakly dependent on particle size. We measured to good approximation the half-width half-maximum (HWHM) of the phase curves, and we find that there is only a weak qualitative agreement between our experimental results and the theoretical estimates of the HWHM for particles of comparable index of refraction and packing density as predicted by M. Mishchenko (1992, Astrophys. Space Sci. 194, 327–333). For particle sizes that are close to the wavelength of the illuminating radiation we find that Mishchenko's model overestimates the HWHM of the phase curve by an order of magnitude. For particle sizes that are much larger or much smaller than the wavelength of the incident radiation the theoretical model underestimates the HWHM of the phase curve by more than an order of magnitude for the smallest particle sizes and factors of several for the large particle sizes. This disagreement between our experimental data and the predictions from theoretical modeling is not unexpected given the assumptions made in the theoretical models that the particles scatter light like isolated, perfect uniform spheres and that the variation in particle size distribution used by Mishchenko was remarkably small, smaller than that of the well-sieved particle sizes used in our experiment. For all samples the circular polarization ratio increased with decreasing phase angle consistent with the hypothesis that the coherent backscattering process is the principal contributor to the reflectance phase curve near 0° for highly reflective, multiply scattering, particulate media. We confirm our previously reported significant opposition surges for powders with sizes 50 times larger and 6 times smaller than the wavelength of the incident light (R. Nelson et al. 1998, Proc. Lurar Planet. Sci. Conf. 29th, Abstract 1146). This suggests that for cases where the wavelength of the incident radiation is much larger than the candidate regolith particle size, the photons behave as if they were interacting with ensembles of particles of size comparable to the wavelength of the incident radiation. For cases where the particle size is much larger than the wavelength of the incident light, the photons appear to be interacting primarily with wavelength-sized cracks, surface asperities, or other irregularities in the regolith particles rather than with the particle as a whole. This work, using sorted powders as planetary surface regolith analogues, has applicability for remote sensing studies of highly reflective planetary regoliths such as might be expected to be found on many the icy satellites of the outer Solar System. Many of these bodies exhibit sharp opposition surges that are most likely due to coherent backscattering.