No Arabic abstract
We introduce the mode connectivity as a measure of the number of eigenmodes of a wave equation connecting two points at a given frequency. Based on numerical simulations of scattering of electromagnetic waves in disordered media, we show that the connectivity discriminates between the diffusive and the Anderson localized regimes. For practical measurements, the connectivity is encoded in the second-order coherence function characterizing the intensity emitted by two incoherent classical or quantum dipole sources. The analysis applies to all processes in which spatially localized modes build up, and to all kinds of waves.
We review some recent (mostly ours) results on the Anderson localization of light and electron waves in complex disordered systems, including: (i) left-handed metamaterials, (ii) magneto-active optical structures, (iii) graphene superlattices, and (iv) nonlinear dielectric media. First, we demonstrate that left-handed metamaterials can significantly suppress localization of light and lead to an anomalously enhanced transmission. This suppression is essential at the long-wavelength limit in the case of normal incidence, at specific angles of oblique incidence (Brewster anomaly), and in the vicinity of the zero-epsilon or zero-mu frequencies for dispersive metamaterials. Remarkably, in disordered samples comprised of alternating normal and left-handed metamaterials, the reciprocal Lyapunov exponent and reciprocal transmittance increment can differ from each other. Second, we study magneto-active multilayered structures, which exhibit nonreciprocal localization of light depending on the direction of propagation and on the polarization. At resonant frequencies or realizations, such nonreciprocity results in effectively unidirectional transport of light. Third, we discuss the analogy between the wave propagation through multilayered samples with metamaterials and the charge transport in graphene, which enables a simple physical explanation of unusual conductive properties of disordered graphene superlatices. We predict disorder-induced resonances of the transmission coefficient at oblique incidence of the Dirac quasiparticles. Finally, we demonstrate that an interplay of nonlinearity and disorder in dielectric media can lead to bistability of individual localized states excited inside the medium at resonant frequencies. This results in nonreciprocity of the wave transmission and unidirectional transport of light.
The newly emerging field of wave front shaping in complex media has recently seen enormous progress. The driving force behind these advances has been the experimental accessibility of the information stored in the scattering matrix of a disordered medium, which can nowadays routinely be exploited to focus light as well as to image or to transmit information even across highly turbid scattering samples. We will provide an overview of these new techniques, of their experimental implementations as well as of the underlying theoretical concepts following from mesoscopic scattering theory. In particular, we will highlight the intimate connections between quantum transport phenomena and the scattering of light fields in disordered media, which can both be described by the same theoretical concepts. We also put particular emphasis on how the above topics relate to application-oriented research fields such as optical imaging, sensing and communication.
In the metamaterial with hyperbolic dispersion (an array of silver nanowires in alumina membrane) we have observed six-fold reduction of the emission life-time of dye deposited onto the metamaterials surface. This serves as the evidence of the earlier predicted high density of photonic states in hyperbolic metamaterials.
Optical helicity density is usually discussed for monochromatic electromagnetic fields in free space. It plays an important role in the interaction with chiral molecules or nanoparticles. Here we introduce the optical helicity density in a dispersive isotropic medium. Our definition is consistent with biorthogonal Maxwell electromagnetism in optical media, the Brillouin energy density, as well as with the recently-introduced canonical momentum and spin of light in dispersive media. We consider a number of examples, including electromagnetic waves in dielectrics, negative-index materials, and metals, as well as interactions of light in a medium with chiral and magnetoelectric molecules.
This is the second of a series of papers devoted to develop a microscopical approach to the dipole emission process and its relation to coherent transport in random media. In this Letter, we deduce a relation between the transverse decay rate of an emitter in a virtual cavity and the complex refraction index of the host medium. We argue on the possibility of a criterion for inhibition/enhancement of spontaneous emission in function of the transition frequency and the correlation length of the host scatterers. In addition, we study the radiative/non-radiative nature of the net power emission through a microscopical analysis of the scattering events involved. This study reveals essential discrepancies with previous interpretations.