Coherence properties of the scattered electromagnetic field generated by anisotropic quasi-homogeneous media

The coherence properties of the scattered field generated by linearly polarized and uniformly unpolarized electromagnetic plane waves incident on anisotropic quasi-homogeneous media are studied. The analytical expressions for the spectral density and the spectral degree of coherence of the three dimensional scattered field are derived. The results of the numerical simulations indicate that not only the properties of the anisotropic media have a great effect on the coherence properties of the scattered field, but also the polarization of the incident wave. And most important, the effect of the polarization of the incident wave on the coherence properties of the scattered field nearly concerns the properties of the anisotropic media. There are also close and interesting relations between the coherence properties of the scattered field that generated by the anisotropic media and by the corresponding isotropic media. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.