Polarization properties of light scattered by a metallic cylinder

Abstract

The experimental determination of the angularly resolved Mueller matrix associated to light scattered by a metallic cylinder is reported. The angle-dependent values of depolarization index and Gil-Bernabeu theorem confirm there are not depolarization effects. To our knowledge, this is the cheapest and easiest way to generate uniform linear horizontal and vertical polarizations scattered angularly. A possible application associated to the use of plastic optical fibers acting like a polarization de-multiplexer is briefly discussed.