TY - UNPB
T1 - Observation of open scattering channels
AU - Meer, Reinier van der
AU - Goede, Michiel de
AU - Kassenberg, Ben
AU - Venderbosch, Pim
AU - Snijders, Henk
AU - Epping, Jorn
AU - Taballione, Caterina
AU - Vlekkert, Hans van den
AU - Renema, Jelmer J.
AU - Pinkse, Pepijn W. H.
N1 - 9 pages including methods and supplementary materials. 3 figures
PY - 2021/10/8
Y1 - 2021/10/8
N2 - The existence of fully transmissive eigenchannels ("open channels") in a random scattering medium is a counterintuitive and unresolved prediction of random matrix theory. The smoking gun of such open channels, namely a bimodal distribution of the transmission efficiencies of the scattering channels, has so far eluded experimental observation. We observe an experimental distribution of transmission efficiencies that obeys the predicted bimodal Dorokhov-Mello-Pereyra-Kumar distribution. Thereby we show the existence of open channels in a linear optical scattering system. The characterization of the scattering system is carried out by a quantum-optical readout method. We find that missing a single channel in the measurement already prevents detection of the open channels, illustrating why their observation has proven so elusive until now. Our work confirms a long-standing prediction of random matrix theory underlying wave transport through disordered systems.
AB - The existence of fully transmissive eigenchannels ("open channels") in a random scattering medium is a counterintuitive and unresolved prediction of random matrix theory. The smoking gun of such open channels, namely a bimodal distribution of the transmission efficiencies of the scattering channels, has so far eluded experimental observation. We observe an experimental distribution of transmission efficiencies that obeys the predicted bimodal Dorokhov-Mello-Pereyra-Kumar distribution. Thereby we show the existence of open channels in a linear optical scattering system. The characterization of the scattering system is carried out by a quantum-optical readout method. We find that missing a single channel in the measurement already prevents detection of the open channels, illustrating why their observation has proven so elusive until now. Our work confirms a long-standing prediction of random matrix theory underlying wave transport through disordered systems.
KW - physics.optics
M3 - Preprint
BT - Observation of open scattering channels
PB - ArXiv.org
ER -