COMPARISONS OF BRDF THEORIES WITH EXPERIMENT (SILICA, ALUMINUM).

Abstract

Scalar and vector electromagnetic boundary-value theories of surface scattering have been applied to a microrough sample of fused silica coated with aluminum. Surface profiles were made with a mechanical and interferometric profilometer. The resulting values of rms surface height and autocorrelation length were used to calculate the scattering for various angles, wavelengths, and polarization conditions. Bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) measurements associated with scatter value were made and their corresponding power spectra were generated. Both were used to compare with the theoretical values. Special attention was also paid to the various methods of determining optical parameters with the BRDF data and the corresponding power spectra.