Scenarios of the disorder increase in the polarization states of partial contributions to the multiple scattered light fields

Random changes in the polarization states of partial contributions to the multiple scattered light fields in a random medium are analyzed using the statistical modeling of polarized light transport in the medium. The mapping of local polarization states on the Poincaré sphere surface clearly indicates the different scenarios of the "order – disorder" transition in the case of Rayleigh and Mie scatterers. If the random medium consisting of small particles is probed by a linearly polarized laser beam, then propagating partial waves keep their linear polarization state but the dispersion of azimuth angles rapidly increases with the increasing average propagation path for these waves. On the contrary, the multiple scattering by random ensembles of the large particles is accompanied by random transformations of the linear polarization of propagating waves to the elliptical polarization. The obtained results are considered in the relation to the known features of polarization decay in the random media.