Scattering of Light from a Rotating Ground Glass*

We report some experimental results concerning the statistical properties of a light beam scattered by a rotating ground glass with average-size inhomogeneities of approximately 1 μm. Photocount statistics measured at different scattering angles and for different angular velocities of the ground glass have confirmed the known result that the scattered-light amplitude is a stochastic gaussian variable. The Bose–Einstein nature of the photocount statistics has been verified with an accuracy of a few parts per thousand. Self-beating measurements on the scattered light of a He–Ne laser in a TEM00 configuration have shown that the power spectrum is a gaussian function of the frequency. The dependence of its half-width on the angular velocity of the ground glass and on the focal length of the lens that focuses the beam on the scattering surface has been measured. The experimental results agree very closely with our theoretical predictions.