Magnetic-field effects on coherent backscattering of light in case of Mie spheres

Abstract

Magneto-optical Faraday rotation destroys the coherent backscattering enhancement of elastically multiple scattered light. In addition, Faraday rotation has been predicted, especially for Mie scattering, to cause a shift of the coherent backscattering cone off the exact backscattering direction in case of circular polarized light, or a twin peak in case of linear polarization (see Lenke R., Maret G. 2000 Eur. Phys. J. B 17 171). In this letter we report the first experimental observations of these predictions. Moreover, we have observed an unexpected transversal asymmetry in the backscattered intensity, i.e. an asymmetric photon flux perpendicular to the external magnetic field and perpendicular to the direction of the incident light.