Title

Spatial correlations in the near field of random media

Authors

Authors

A. Apostol;A. Dogariu

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Phys. Rev. Lett.

Keywords

COHERENCE; SURFACE; FLUCTUATIONS; Physics, Multidisciplinary

Abstract

The conventional coherence theory suggests that the fields radiated by statistically homogeneous sources correlate over spatial regions of the order of the wavelength irrespective of the distance from the surface of the source. Contrary to these predictions, we show that the spatial correlations of optical fields in close proximity of highly scattering, randomly inhomogeneous media depend on this distance and, moreover, their extent can be significantly smaller than the wavelength. The contribution of evanescent fields is experimentally demonstrated and the coherence length in the near field is shown to relate to the coherence properties at the surface which are, in turn, determined by the structural characteristics of the random media.

Journal Title

Physical Review Letters

Volume

91

Issue/Number

9

Publication Date

1-1-2003

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

4

WOS Identifier

WOS:000185235000021

ISSN

0031-9007

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