Polarization and spatial coherence of electromagnetic waves in uncorrelated disordered media

Abstract

Spatial field correlation functions represent a key quantity for the description of mesoscopic phenomena in disordered media and the optical characterization of complex materials. Yet many aspects related to the vector nature of light waves have not been investigated so far. We study theoretically the polarization and coherence properties of electromagnetic waves produced by a dipole source in a three-dimensional uncorrelated disordered medium. The spatial field correlation matrix is calculated analytically using a multiple scattering theory for polarized light. This allows us to provide a formal description of the light depolarization process in terms of "polarization eigenchannels" and to derive analytical formulas for the spatial coherence of multiply-scattered light.