Theory of light diffusion in disordered media with linear absorption or gain

    Authors

    A. Lubatsch; J. Kroha;K. Busch

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Phys. Rev. B

    Keywords

    STRONGLY SCATTERING MEDIA; 2-PARTICLE LOCATOR THEORY; SELF-CONSISTENT; TREATMENT; BETHE-SALPETER-EQUATION; NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS; COHERENT; BACKSCATTERING; ANDERSON LOCALIZATION; TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES; CLASSICAL; WAVES; RANDOM LASERS; Physics, Condensed Matter

    Abstract

    We present a detailed, microscopic transport theory for light in strongly scattering disordered systems whose constituent materials exhibit linear absorption or gain. Starting from Maxwell's equations, we derive general expressions for transport quantities such as energy transport velocity, transport mean free path, diffusion coefficient, and absorption/gain length. The approach is based on a fully vectorial treatment of the generalized kinetic equation and utilizes an exact Ward identity (WI). While for loss- and gainless media the WI reflects local energy conservation, the effects of absorption or coherent gain are implemented exactly by additional terms in the WI. As a result of resonant (Mie) scattering from the individual scatterers, all transport quantities acquire strong, frequency-dependent renormalizations, which are, in addition, characteristically modified by absorption or gain. We illustrate the influence of various experimentally accessible parameters on these quanitities for dilute systems. The transport theory presented here may set the stage for a theory of random lasing in three-dimensional disordered media.

    Journal Title

    Physical Review B

    Volume

    71

    Issue/Number

    18

    Publication Date

    1-1-2005

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    10

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000230124100040

    ISSN

    1098-0121

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