Light emission statistics as a local probe for structural phase switching

Abstract

The statistical properties of light transport and emission in disordered media has been a matter of intense research during the last century. Being the basis of coherent multiple scattering of waves well known, the phenomenon itself is not yet fully explored and understood. These multiple wave scattering effects are at the heart of emerging behaviors like Anderson localization of light and electrons, band structure in crystalline solids or photonic crystals (PhC), among many others. Although the limits of perfectly ordered systems on the one hand, and uncorrelated and relatively weakly scattering systems on the other hand, are quite well understood. There is a gap between both limits which is largely unexplored. In particular, it has been shown in many different situations that disordered systems exhibiting certain structural correlations can share properties of both crystalline and fully disordered systems. For instance, the conductivity of liquid metals or the cornea transparency [2] can be understood in the same footing: a disordered but correlated system can present spectral regions of high transparency for electron or light transport.