Anderson localization of partially-incoherent light

Abstract

We study Anderson localization and propagation of partially-spatially incoherent wavepackets in linear disordered potentials, motivated by the insight that interference phenomena resulting from multiple scattering are affected by the coherence of the waves. We find that localization is delayed by incoherence: the more incoherent the waves are, the longer they diffusively spread while propagating in the medium. However, if all the eigenmodes of the system are exponentially localized (as in one- and two-dimensional disordered systems), any partially-incoherent wavepacket eventually exhibits localization with exponentially-decaying tails, after sufficiently long propagation distances. Interestingly, we find that the asymptotic behavior of the incoherent beam is similar to that of a single instantaneous coherent realization of the beam.

Revised version including a discussion on both spatially and temporally incoherent light beams. Revised Figs. 2 and 3 and fixed typos

References in corpus (3)

• Direct observation of Anderson localization of matter-waves in a controlled disorder
• Anderson localization of a Tonks-Girardeau gas in potentials with controlled disorder
• Dark stationary matter-waves via parity-selective evaporation in a Tonks-Girardeau gas

Cited by in corpus (9)

• The dependent scattering effect on radiative properties of micro/nanoscale discrete disordered media
• Rogue events in complex linear and nonlinear photonic media
• Probing the dynamics of Anderson localization through spatial mapping
• Matter-wave analog of an optical random laser
• Discrete Anderson Speckle
• Localization from quantum interference in one-dimensional disordered potentials
• Light scattering in disordered honeycomb photonic lattices near the Dirac points
• Measurement-based tailoring of Anderson localization of partially coherent light
• Transverse Anderson localization of light: a tutorial review