Resonant-light diffusion in a disordered atomic layer

Abstract

Light scattering in dense media is a fundamental problem of many-body physics, which is also relevant for the development of optical devices. In this work we investigate experimentally light propagation in a dense sample of randomly positioned resonant scatterers confined in a layer of sub-wavelength thickness. We locally illuminate the atomic cloud and monitor spatially-resolved fluorescence away from the excitation region. We show that light spreading is well described by a diffusion process, involving many scattering events in the dense regime. For light detuned from resonance we find evidence that the atomic layer behaves as a graded-index planar waveguide. These features are reproduced by a simple geometrical model and numerical simulations of coupled dipoles.

Supplementary Material available as ancillary files

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• Robust coherent transport of light in multi-level hot atomic vapors
• Optical-depth scaling of light scattering from a dense and cold atomic ${}^{87}$Rb gas
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• Photon thermalization via laser cooling of atoms
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• Large optical depth frequency modulation spectroscopy
• Propagation of light in cold emitter ensembles with quantum position correlations due to static long-range dipolar interactions
• Weak localization of light in hot atomic vapors
• Mean-Field Description of Cooperative Scattering by Atomic Clouds