Experimental measurement of the statistics of the scattered intensity from particles on surfaces

We analyze the statistics of the co-polarized and cross-polarized scattered intensity from a flat substrate contaminated with spherical particles including multiple scattering between them. Both Gaussian and non-Gaussian regimes are considered. In particular, we focus on both the cross-polarized component and the probability of detecting zeros in the cross-polarized intensity, P(Icross=0). As it is shown, the latter gives information about particle interaction and can be measured with higher accuracy than other statistical parameters. A theoretical model for P(Icross=0) is presented for spherical Rayleigh scatterers. An scattering experiment was carried out to verify this model.