Scattering from a slightly rough chiral surface: analysis with the small perturbation method and the small slope...

We study the scattering of a linearly polarized electromagnetic plane wave by a two-dimensional random slightly rough surface separating the vacuum from a chiral medium. We implement the first-order small perturbation method (SPM) and the first-order small slope approximation (SSA) and determine the analytical expressions of the coherent and incoherent intensities. The effects of chirality on the polarization of the wave scattered within the vacuum are analyzed. The coherent intensity has a cross-polarized component as well as the incoherent intensity in the incidence plane. We show that there are configurations for which a total polarization coupling occurs with the co-polarized incoherent intensity equal to zero.