Abstract

The phenomenon of enhanced backscattering has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. Normally, it is assumed that some randomness is required for this phenomenon to occur. In this work, we study numerically and experimentally the scattering of light from different types of quasiperiodic surfaces. We show that, under certain conditions, the angular distribution of the light scattered by these deterministic surfaces displays backscattering enhancement. These conditions involve the surface slope, the departure from periodicity, and the length of the surface illuminated. Experimental and numerical results supporting these statements will be presented.

© 1992 Optical Society of America