Correlation between intensity fluctuations of electromagnetic waves scattered from a spatially quasi-homogeneous, anisotropic medium

Abstract

Within the validity of the first-order Born approximation, expressions are derived for the correlation between intensity fluctuations (CIF) of an electromagnetic plane wave scattered from a spatially quasi-homogeneous (QH), anisotropic medium. Upon establishing the correlation matrix of the scattering potential of the medium, we show that the CIF is the summation of Fourier transforms of the strengths and normalized correlation coefficients (NCCs) of the scattering potential matrix. Numerical results reveal that the CIF is susceptible to the effective width and correlation length of the medium, and degree of polarization of the incident electromagnetic wave. Our study not only extends the current knowledge of the CIF of a scattered field but also provides an important reference to the study of high-order intensity correlations of light scattered from a spatially anisotropic medium.