Coherent Backscattering

What I've Been Doing

So far this summer, I've been learning about the coherent backscattering effect, and trying to set up my own experiment for observing the effect in different media. This is not as easy as it sounds, because I need to look at the light scattered from exactly where the laser hit the material. To try and get around blocking the laser, I need to use a beam-splitter - which causes me to lose a lot of the laser power which I could measure. Further, I need to make sure I'm looking at the multiple scattered light, not the reflected or single scattered light. In order to do that, I need to put in polarizers and a quarter wave plate, which circularly polarizes light. The diagram below shows roughly what my setup will look like, minus a few components.