Theory of depolarization of Raman scattering in crystals

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Abstract
The use of Stokes parameters to describe, classically, a beam of partially polarized light will be reviewed. Chandrasekharan [1] has discussed the relevant scattering matrix for the Stokes parameters for the Raman effect in cubic crystals. His theory is essentially classical, and uses the phenomenological, symmetry-determined Raman tensors for Raman active modes in cubic crystals to determine the scattering matrix. Quantum mechanically, the Stokes parameters should be considered as Stokes operators (analogous to angular momentum operators). The problem of Raman scattering depolarization will be formulated quantum mechanically in terms of the expectation values of the Stokes operators, before and after scattering. Recent progress in obtaining the density matrix of scattered light in order to perform the quantum calculation will be discussed. The formulation of Raman scattering in the other paper by the present author, at this conference (p. 736), may be used to solve this problem by explicity exhibiting spin variables in the appropriate hamiltonians

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