Tilt-invariant theory of rough-surface scattering: I

The small-slope approximation (SSA) in rough-surface scattering theory uses the surface slope as a small parameter of expansion. But, from the physical point of view, the slope may not be a restrictive parameter because we can change the slope of a surface simply by tilting the coordinate system. We present the theory of rough-surface scattering in a coordinate-invariant form. The new method, tilt-invariant approximation (TIA), leads to a different expansion that does not require that the slope of a surface be small. For a small Rayleigh parameter this approximate solution provides the correct perturbation theory, for a large Rayleigh parameter it provides the Kirchhoff approximation with several correcting terms.