Enhanced backscattering at grazing angles

Opt Lett. 2002 Dec 2;27(23):2067-9. doi: 10.1364/ol.27.002067.

Abstract

Backscattering signals at small grazing angles are important for space vehicle atmospheric reentrance and subsurface radar sensing applications. They are also useful in Fourier-transform infrared grazing-angle microscopy. Recently we performed an experimental study of far-field scattering at small grazing angles, in particular, of enhanced backscattering at grazing angles. For a randomly weak rough dielectric film upon a reflecting metal substrate, a large enhanced backscattering peak was measured. Experimental results are compared with small perturbation theoretical predictions.