Rayleigh Scattering and Weak Localization

A radiative-transfer equation describing the propagation of light in a disordered medium is presented. The equation includes the effects of weak localization and polarization of the light. The polarization of the light in coherent backscattering from a disordered medium is discussed. It is found that for circularly or elliptically polarized light the interference in the backward direction is partially destructive. For linearly polarized light the depolarized scattered component does not contain coherent backscattering, in qualitative accord with observations.