Polarimetric microfacet scattering theory with applications to absorptive and reflective surfaces

We investigate the polarimetric scattering properties of highly absorbing and highly reflective rough surfaces in the IR. We obtain Mueller matrix measurements from these surfaces and compare the data to a Fresnel model. From the data, we determine that a rough, highly absorbing surface has a higher degree of polarization compared to a rough, highly reflective surface. In addition, we present a full polarimetric version of the microfacet model and discuss its properties. This closed-form result for the polarimetric bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) is derived from the microfacet model.