Abstract

Scattering measurements of rough surfaces are usually made using linearly polarized light. There are four possibilities: ba = pp, sp, ps and ss, where a is the initial state of polarization and b is the final state. Such measurements may be adequate for determining the power spectral densities (PSDs) of smooth topographically rough surfaces, but they do not capture all of the information about the surface that can be obtained from polarimetric measurements.

© 1992 Optical Society of America