Abstract

With the increasing use of laser light in scattering experiments, a good deal of information has been obtained in recent years about thermal fluctuations in gases and liquids, lattice vibrations in solids, phase transitions, etc. The underlying theory has, however, been largely restricted to scattering of monochromatic plane waves by density fluctuations in equilibrium conditions. We present new results, valid within the accuracy of the first Born approximation, relating to scattering of partially coherent light by a linear medium whose macroscopic response is a random function of space and time, characterized by a statistical ensemble that is homogeneous and stationary. The incident light is assumed to be linearly polarized, statistically stationary, and homogeneous and to have an arbitrary spectral profile. The analysis is based on statistical continuum theory, and the results apply both off-resonance and in the resonance region of the medium. The central quantity of this theory is a generalization of the van Hove correlation function,^1,2 well known in the theory of neutron scattering.

© 1988 Optical Society of America