Angular dependence of the specular reflectance from an isotropic polydomain medium with large domains: surprising results regarding Brewster's angle

• Published in: Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 185
• Main Authors: Mayerhöfer, Thomas G, Musfeldt, Janice L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.01.2005
• ISSN: 1084-7529
• DOI: 10.1364/JOSAA.22.000185

The angular dependence of the reflectance from an isotropic medium with large, randomly oriented, ordered domains is investigated and compared with that of an isotropic medium in which the optical properties can be characterized by a scalar dielectric function. Employing average reflectance and transmittance theory, we demonstrate that an isotropic medium consisting of optically large ordered domains exhibits only a parallel-polarized reflectance minimum, not the formal zero expected at Brewster's angle. We attribute this result to the existence of nonzero cross-polarization terms despite the random orientation and the application of an incoherent averaging scheme, which is used to mimic traditional light sources.