Depolarization analysis of a laser beam scattered by a dusty plasma

A pulsed laser has been used to generate a laser plasma plume (a dusty plasma) from a pressed powder target situated in the room atmosphere. This dusty plasma has been analyzed with a probe laser beam, a polarizing interferometer and a CCD camera. Our results show that this dusty plasma is a depolarizing medium. The maximum depolarization degree of the probe laser beam is 5%.