The scattering of coherent light from a rough surface

Certain properties of the speckle patterns produced when coherent light is scattered from a rough surface are described from a theoretical and an experimental point of view. The size of the speckles is shown to depend on whether a telescope or microscope is used to view the pattern and also, using the former instrument, on the size of the illuminated area. The effects on the speckle pattern of a tilting of the target about an axis in its own plane, of pure translation and of rotation when illuminated by waves of arbitrary direction of incidence and curvature are also described. A number of seemingly anomalous results are shown to be in accordance with a general theory of the movement of the pattern based only on geometrical optics.