Walk dimension for light in complex disordered media

Romolo Savo, Matteo Burresi, Tomas Svensson, Kevin Vynck, and Diederik S. Wiersma
Phys. Rev. A 90, 023839 – Published 21 August 2014

Abstract

Transport in complex systems is characterized by a fractal dimension—the walk dimension—that indicates the diffusive or anomalous nature of the underlying random walk process. Here we report on the experimental retrieval of this key quantity, using light waves propagating in disordered media. The approach is based on measurements of the time-resolved transmission, in particular on how the lifetime scales with sample size. We show that this allows one to retrieve the walk dimension and apply the concept to samples with varying degree of fractal heterogeneity. In addition, the method provides the first experimental demonstration of anomalous light dynamics in a random medium.

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  • Received 21 June 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.90.023839

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Romolo Savo1,2,*, Matteo Burresi1,3, Tomas Svensson1, Kevin Vynck1,4,†, and Diederik S. Wiersma1,2,3

  • 1European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS), I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy
  • 2Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy
  • 3Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (CNR-INO), Largo Fermi 6, I-50125 Firenze (FI), Italy
  • 4Institut Langevin, ESPCI ParisTech, CNRS, 1 rue Jussieu, F-75238 Paris Cedex 05, France

  • *romolo.savo@lkb.ens.fr; Current address: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, UMR 8552, CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Collège de France, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France.
  • Current address: Laboratoire Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences (LP2N), UMR 5298, CNRS–IOGS–Univ. Bordeaux, Institut d'Optique d'Aquitaine, 33400 Talence, France.

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Vol. 90, Iss. 2 — August 2014

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