Anomalous transport of light in complex media: from Anderson localization to superdiffusion

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• Kevin Vynck (LENS, Florence)
• Monday 22 February 2010, 15:00-16:00
• Physics East 217.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Vincent Boyer.

Light transport in disordered optical materials is characterized by a multiple scattering process where spatial fluctuations of the refractive index scramble the direction and phase of propagating waves. One generally deals with transport in random media by neglecting strong interferences between scattered waves and by assuming that scatterers are homogeneously distributed in space, thereby leading to a diffusive type of transport. This seminar will be concerned with two wave transport phenomena that go beyond the standard diffusion model, namely Anderson localization [1], in which transport comes to a halt due to strong interference effects, and superdiffusion [2], where large spatial inhomogeneities make transport faster than normally expected. Both topics will be introduced on theoretical grounds and recent developments will be discussed in the framework of light transport.

[1] A. Lagendijk, B. A. van Tiggelen, D. S. Wiersma, “Fifty years of Anderson localization,” Physics Today 62, 24 (2009).

[2] P. Barthelemy, J. Bertolotti, D. S. Wiersma, “A Lévy flight for light,” Nature 453, 495 (2008).

This talk is part of the Cold Atoms series.

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