Keywords

Optics, light scattering, polarization

Abstract

The interaction between coherent waves and material systems with complex optical properties is a complicated, deterministic process. Light that scatters from such media gives rise to random fields with intricate properties. It is common perception that the randomness of these complex fields is undesired and therefore is to be removed, usually through a process of ensemble averaging. However, random fields emerging from light matter interaction contain information about the properties of the medium and a thorough analysis of the scattered light allows solving specific inverse problems. Traditional attempts to solve these kinds of inverse problems tend to rely on statistical average quantities and ignore the deterministic interaction between the optical field and the scattering structure. Thus, because ensemble averaging inherently destroys specific characteristics of random processes, one can only recover limited information about the medium. This dissertation discusses practical means that go beyond ensemble averaging to probe complex media and extract additional information about a random scattering system. The dissertation discusses cases in which media with similar average properties can be differentiated by detailed examination of fluctuations between different realizations of the random process of multiple scattering. As a different approach to this type of inverse problems, the dissertation also includes a description of how higher-order field and polarization correlations can be used to extract features of random media and complex systems from one single realization of the light- iv matter interaction. Examples include (i) determining the level of multiple scattering, (ii) identifying non-stationarities in random fields, and (iii) extracting underlying correlation lengths of random electromagnetic fields that result from basic interferences. The new approaches introduced and the demonstrations described in this dissertation represent practical means to extract important material properties or to discriminate between media with similar characteristics even in situations when experimental constraints limit the number of realizations of the complex light-matter interaction

Notes

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Graduation Date

2013

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Dogariu, Aristide

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Optics and Photonics

Department

Optics and Photonics

Degree Program

Optics

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004656

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004656

Language

English

Release Date

May 2014

Length of Campus-only Access

1 year

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Optics and Photonics, Optics and Photonics -- Dissertations, Academic

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