CORRELATION TRANSFER - DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION

A correlation transfer equation for multiple scattering of light through suspensions of diffusing particles is derived from multiple scattering theory. Because of the formal similarity between the correlation equation and the radiative transfer equation, radiative transport solution techniques are applied to obtain solutions for the field correlation function in isotropic one-dimensional media. A three-term Legendre expansion for the angularly dependent single scattering function (g(1)) in the correlation integral equation is used to obtain approximate numerical solutions for the correlation function. Graphical results are presented for the correlation in both the forward and backward directions for a finite medium and for backscattering in the case of an infinite medium. Experimental results are also presented and they show improved agreement with the three-term Legendre expansion of g(1) as compared to the one or two-term expansions. Correlation transfer results are shown to agree well with both the diffusion limit and the single scattering limit predictions.