Phase diffusion and random walk interpretation of electromagnetic scattering

The relaxation behavior of phase observables for different particle diffusion models is found to establish a ground for radioscience interpretations of coherent backscatter spectra. The characteristic function for a random walk process at twice the incident radiation wave number is associated with the complex amplitude of the scattered field from a medium containing refractive index fluctuations. The phase relaxation function can be connected to the evolution of the characteristic function and may describe the average regression of the scattered field from a spontaneous fluctuation undergoing turbulent mixing. This connection holds when we assume that the stochastic description of particle movements based on a diffusion model is valid. The phase relaxation function, when identified as the generalized susceptibility function of the fluctuation dissipation theorem, is related to the spectral density of the scattered field from steady-state fluctuations.