Effect of Mie scattering polarization on thermal radiative transfer in a slab

Polarization is an important characteristic of electromagnetic radiation. Analysis of radiative transfer with considering the effect of polarization is based on the vector radiative transfer equation, in which the vector of Stokes parameters is taken as governing variable. Because it is too complicate for considering polarization effect in thermal radiation analysis, the effect of polarization is often neglected in common thermal radiation analysis. It may cause large error when the effect of polarization is totally omitted. The effect of polarization on the thermal radiative transfer in an infinite slab is analyzed through numerically solving the vector radiative transfer equation. It is observed that the polarization state of the incident beam and the polarization characteristic of the phase matrix is coupled together to take effect in influencing the predicted radiative heat flux. The effect of polarization is noticeable only when the characteristic of phase matrix is strongly coupled with polarization state of the incident beam, namely, the scattered intensity distribution is remarkably altered for different polarization state of incident beam. In such circumstances it will cause large deviation of scalar radiative transfer analysis.