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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Automated high-speed Mueller matrix scatterometer
1Department of Optics and Acoustics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Abstract:
A new scatterometer-polarimeter is described. It measures the angular distribution of intensity and of the complete Mueller matrix of light scattered by rough surfaces and particle suspensions. The measurement time is 1 s/scattering angle in the present configuration but can be reduced to a few milliseconds with modified electronics. The instrument uses polarization modulation and a Fourier analysis of four detected signals to obtain the 16 Mueller matrix elements. This method is particularly well suited to online, real time, industrial process control involving rough surfaces and large particle suspensions (an arithmetic roughness or particle diameter of >1 microm). Some results are given.

