Grazing angle enhanced backscattering from a dielectric film on a reflecting metal substrate

Abstract

Public Reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Abstract. We have recently observed several features from a randomly rough dielectric film on a reflecting metal substrate including a change in the spectrum of light at the satellite peaks, the high-order correlation, and enhanced backscattering from the grazing angle. In this paper, we focus on the enhanced backscattering phenomena. The backscattering signal at small grazing angles is very important for vehicle re-entrance and subsurface radar sensing applications. Recently, we performed an experimental study of far-field scattering at small grazing angles, especially enhanced backscattering at grazing angles. For a randomly weak, rough dielectric film on a reflecting metal substrate, a much larger enhanced backscattering peak is measured. Experimental results are compared with theoretical predictions based on a two-scale surface roughness scattering model.