The Rytov approximation at first order writes the total profile as and identifies the first logarithmic perturbation with the Born relative field:
Hence, in the upper half-space,
Expanding the exponential function to first order shows that its reflected component is
The exponentiated expression is the Rytov approximation to the total field; only its term linear in is a single specular reflected plane wave.
The Taylor expansion of the square root is
Substitution into the exact reflection coefficient gives
Consequently
This is exactly the reflected field furnished by both the Born approximation and the term linear in in the Rytov approximation. Thus the exact, Born, and Rytov fields agree through first order. If the Rytov exponential is retained without re-expansion, its higher powers generate spatial harmonics ; those terms are part of the approximation and should not be confused with the exact interface's single reflected wave.
Since with small variance,
To leading order, is therefore a centered stationary Gaussian random field. Let its autocorrelation function of a random field be
The contribution gives higher-order mean and non-Gaussian corrections and is consistently omitted at this order.
The far-field Rytov approximation from part ii has unit incident intensity and
The real random variable is centered Gaussian. Its moment-generating function gives
Define
Then
and hence
This expression depends only on the two-point autocorrelation of the scattering potential. In the weak-fluctuation expansion it becomes
Use the sign convention in the question,
Then the total field satisfies
The outgoing free-space Green function is
with . Hence the Lippmann-Schwinger equation is
Replacing the unknown interior total field by the incident field gives the first Born approximation
For the Rytov approximation, put . After division by , the wave equation gives
Neglecting the quadratic term makes obey the same inhomogeneous equation as the first Born scattered field. Thus
and
Its power series begins
so the two approximations agree through first order in the scattering potential.