Fresnel boundary and interface conditions for polarized radiative transfer in a multilayer medium

In many applications of the theory of radiative transfer, it is important to consider the changes in the index of refraction that occur when the physical domain being studied consists of material regions with distinct optical properties. When polarization effects are taken into account, the radiation field is described by a vector of four components known as the Stokes vector. At an interface between two different material regions, the reflected and transmitted Stokes vectors are related to the incident Stokes vector by means of reflection and transmission matrices, which are derived from the Fresnel formulas for the amplitude coefficients of reflection and transmission. Having seen that many works on polarized radiative transfer that allow for changes in the index of refraction exhibit discrepancies in their expressions for the transmission matrix, we present in this work a careful derivation of the relations between the reflected and transmitted Stokes vectors and the Stokes vector incident on an interface. We obtain a general form of a transmission factor that is required to ensure conservation of energy and we show that most of the discrepancies encountered in existing works are associated with the use of improper forms of this factor. In addition, we derive explicit and compact expressions for the Fresnel boundary and interface conditions appropriate to the study of polarized radiative transfer in a multilayer medium.

► A careful derivation of the interface relations for the Stokes vector is reported. ► Existing works are examined and discrepancies are identified and discussed. ► Compact forms of the Fresnel conditions for a multilayer medium are derived.