Title

Theory Of Light Diffusion In Disordered Media With Linear Absorption Or Gain

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. © 2005 The American Physical Society.

Publication Date

12-13-2005

Publication Title

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Volume

71

Issue

18

Number of Pages

-

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.71.184201

Socpus ID

28544439817 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/28544439817

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