Abstract

The effect of optical anisotropy of the medium on the propagation of incident and scattered light is derived from Maxwell’s equations. Although the emphasis is on uniaxial nonabsorbing media, formulas for arbitrary anisotropy are presented that are valid for biaxial, absorbing, and gyrotropic (optically active) media, as well. For the case of single scattering the contributions from ordinary and extraordinary incoming and scattering waves are given. An estimate of the typical error introduced by disregard of the anisotropy of the medium is given.

© 1994 Optical Society of America

Electromagnetic wave scattering in a two-layer anisotropic random medium

Jay Kyoon Lee and Jin Au Kong
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 2(12) 2171-2186 (1985)

Spectrum of an electromagnetic light wave on scattering from an anisotropic semisoft boundary medium

Tao Wang, Zhenfei Jiang, Xiaoling Ji, and Daomu Zhao
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(4) 625-629 (2016)

Light scattering from a randomly oriented anisotropic layer on a rough surface

V. Celli, T. T. Ong, and P. Tran
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11(2) 716-722 (1994)

Light in periodically stratified media

John Lekner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11(11) 2892-2899 (1994)

Generalization of ray tracing in a linear inhomogeneous anisotropic medium: a coordinate-free approach

Alireza Akbarzadeh and Aaron J. Danner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 27(12) 2558-2562 (2010)