arXiv subjects

S. E. Skipetrov

Publications and source records attributed to S. E. Skipetrov.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Polarization-controlled transport of light in a two-dimensional waveguide

Light propagation in disordered media is particularly complex due to the interference effects and polarization-mixing terms. Two-dimensional systems are particularly interesting because they feature two decoupled scattering channels, with distinct spectral statistics due to the presence of polarization-coupling terms in only one of them. We here show that in one channel, Anderson localization bounds the light transport both longitudinally and transversely. In the second channel, in contrast, diffusive transport takes place independently of scatterer density. Our results open new possibilities for engineering of light transport in two-dimensional waveguides.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Anderson localization of light by impurities in a solid transparent matrix

A solid transparent medium with randomly positioned, immobile impurity atoms is a promising candidate for observation of Anderson localization of light in three dimensions. It can have low losses and allows for mitigation of the detrimental effect of longitudinal optical fields by an external magnetic field, but it has its own issues: thermal oscillations of atoms around their equilibrium positions and inhomogeneous broadening of atomic spectral lines due to random local electric fields. Our calculations suggest that these complications should not impede observation of Anderson localization of light in such materials provided that sufficiently high number densities of impurities can be reached. The thermal oscillations hardly affect light propagation whereas the inhomogeneous broadening can be compensated for by increasing the number density of impurities.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2022

Topological transitions and Anderson localization of light in disordered atomic arrays

We explore the interplay of disorder and topological phenomena in honeycomb lattices of atoms coupled by the electromagnetic field. On the one hand, disorder can trigger transitions between distinct topological phases and drive the lattice into the topological Anderson insulator state. On the other hand, the nontrivial topology of the photonic band structure suppresses Anderson localization of modes that disorder introduces inside the band gap of the ideal lattice. Furthermore, we discover that disorder can both open a topological pseudogap in the spectrum of an otherwise topologically trivial system and introduce spatially localized modes inside it.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Longitudinal modes in diffusion and localization of light

In this work we include the elastic scattering of longitudinal electromagnetic waves in transport theory using a medium filled with point-like, electric dipoles. The interference between longitudinal and transverse waves creates two new channels among which one allows energy transport. This picture is worked out by extending the independent scattering framework of radiative transfer to include binary dipole-dipole interactions. We calculate the diffusion constant of light in the new transport channel and investigate the role of longitudinal waves in other aspects of light diffusion by considering the density of states, equipartition, and Lorentz local field. In the strongly scattering regime, the different transport mechanisms couple and impose a minimum conductivity of electromagnetic waves, thereby preventing Anderson localization of light in the medium. We extend the self-consistent theory of localization and compare the predictions to extensive numerical simulations.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2020

Localization of light in a three-dimensional disordered crystal of atoms

We demonstrate that a weak disorder in atomic positions introduces spatially localized optical modes in a dense three-dimensional ensemble of immobile two-level atoms arranged in a diamond lattice and coupled by the electromagnetic field. The frequencies of the localized modes concentrate near band edges of the unperturbed lattice. Finite-size scaling analysis of the percentiles of Thouless conductance reveals two mobility edges and yields an estimation $ν= 0.8$--1.1 for the critical exponent of the localization length. The localized modes disappear when the disorder becomes too strong and the system starts to resemble a fully disordered one where all modes are extended.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2020

Acoustic density estimation of dense fish shoals

Multiple scattering of acoustic waves offers a noninvasive method for density estimation of a dense shoal of fish where traditional techniques such as echo-counting or echo-integration fail. Through acoustic experiments with a multi-beam sonar system in open sea cages, multiple scattering of sound in a fish shoal, and in particular the coherent backscattering effect, can be observed and interpreted quantitatively. Furthermore, a volumetric scan of the fish shoal allows isolation of a few individual fish from which target strength estimations are possible. The combination of those two methods allows for fish density estimation in the challenging case of dense shoals.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Intensity of waves inside a strongly disordered medium

Anderson localization does not lead to an exponential decay of intensity of an incident wave with the depth inside a strongly disordered three-dimensional medium. Instead, the average intensity is roughly constant in the first half of a disordered slab, sharply drops in a narrow region in the middle of the sample, and then remains low in the second half of the sample. A universal, scale-free spatial distribution of average intensity is found at mobility edges where the intensity exhibits strong sample-to-sample fluctuations. Our numerical simulations allow us to discriminate between two competing local diffusion theories of Anderson localization and to pinpoint a deficiency of the self-consistent theory.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2019

Transport of light through a dense ensemble of cold atoms in a static electric field

We demonstrate that the transport of coherent quasiresonant light through a dense cloud of immobile two-level atoms subjected to a static external electric field can be described by a simple diffusion process up to atomic number densities of the order of at least $10^2$ atoms per wavelength cubed. Transport mean free paths well below the wavelength of light in the free space can be reached without inducing any sign of Anderson localization of light or of any other mechanism of breakdown of diffusion.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2019

Search for Anderson localization of light by cold atoms in a static electric field

We explore the potential of a static electric field to induce Anderson localization of light in a large three-dimensional (3D) cloud of randomly distributed, immobile atoms with a degenerate ground state (total angular momentum $J_g = 0$) and a three-fold degenerate excited state ($J_e = 1$). We study both the spatial structure of quasimodes of the atomic cloud and the scaling of the Thouless number with the size of the cloud. Our results indicate that unlike the static magnetic field, the electric field does not induce Anderson localization of light by atoms. We explain this conclusion by the incomplete removal of degeneracy of the excited atomic state by the field and the relatively strong residual dipole-dipole coupling between atoms which is weaker than in the absence of external fields but stronger than in the presence of a static magnetic field. A joint analysis of these results together with our previous results concerning Anderson localization of scalar waves and light suggests the existence of a critical strength of dipole-dipole interactions that should not be surpassed for Anderson localization to be possible in 3D.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Transverse confinement of ultrasound through the Anderson transition in 3D mesoglasses

We report an in-depth investigation of the Anderson localization transition for classical waves in three dimensions (3D). Experimentally, we observe clear signatures of Anderson localization by measuring the transverse confinement of transmitted ultrasound through slab-shaped mesoglass samples. We compare our experimental data with predictions of the self-consistent theory of Anderson localization for an open medium with the same geometry as our samples. This model describes the transverse confinement of classical waves as a function of the localization (correlation) length, $ξ$ ($ζ$), and is fitted to our experimental data to quantify the transverse spreading/confinement of ultrasound all of the way through the transition between diffusion and localization. Hence we are able to precisely identify the location of the mobility edges at which the Anderson transitions occur.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Localization transition for light scattering by cold atoms in an external magnetic field

We establish a localization phase diagram for light in a random three-dimensional (3D) ensemble of motionless two-level atoms with a three-fold degenerate upper level, in a strong static magnetic field. Localized modes appear in a narrow spectral band when the number density of atoms $ρ$ exceeds a critical value $ρ_c \simeq 0.1 k_0^3$, where $k_0$ is the wave number of light in the free space. A critical exponent of the localization transition taking place upon varying the frequency of light at a constant $ρ> ρ_c$ is estimated to be $ν= 1.57 \pm 0.07$. This classifies the transition as an Anderson localization transition of 3D orthogonal universality class.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2018

Anderson transition for elastic waves in three dimensions

We use two different fully vectorial microscopic models featuring nonresonant and resonant scattering, respectively, to demonstrate the Anderson localization transition for elastic waves in three-dimensional (3D) disordered solids. Critical parameters of the transition determined by finite-time and finite-size scaling analyses suggest that the transition belongs to the 3D orthogonal universality class. Similarities and differences between the elastic-wave and light scattering in strongly disordered media are discussed.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2018

Ioffe-Regel criterion of Anderson localization in the model of resonant point scatterers

We establish a phase diagram of a model in which scalar waves are scattered by resonant point scatterers pinned at random positions in the free three-dimensional (3D) space. A transition to Anderson localization takes place in a narrow frequency band near the resonance frequency provided that the number density of scatterers $ρ$ exceeds a critical value $ρ_c \simeq 0.08 k_0^{3}$, where $k_0$ is the wave number in the free space. The localization condition $ρ> ρ_c$ can be rewritten as $k_0 \ell_0 < 1$, where $\ell_0$ is the on-resonance mean free path in the independent-scattering approximation. At mobility edges, the decay of the average amplitude of a monochromatic plane wave is not purely exponential and the growth of its phase is nonlinear with the propagation distance. This makes it impossible to define the mean free path $\ell$ and the effective wave number $k$ in a usual way. If the latter are defined as an effective decay length of the intensity and an effective growth rate of the phase of the average wave field, the Ioffe-Regel parameter $(k\ell)_c$ at the mobility edges can be calculated and takes values from 0.3 to 1.2 depending on $ρ$. Thus, the Ioffe-Regel criterion of localization $k\ell < (k\ell)_c = \mathrm{const} \sim 1$ is valid only qualitatively and cannot be used as a quantitative condition of Anderson localization in 3D.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2017

Finite-time scaling at the Anderson transition for vibrations in solids

A model in which a three-dimensional elastic medium is represented by a network of identical masses connected by springs of random strengths and allowed to vibrate only along a selected axis of the reference frame, exhibits an Anderson localization transition. To study this transition, we assume that the dynamical matrix of the network is given by a product of a sparse random matrix with real, independent, Gaussian-distributed non-zero entries and its transpose. A finite-time scaling analysis of system's response to an initial excitation allows us to estimate the critical parameters of the localization transition. The critical exponent is found to be $ν= 1.57 \pm 0.02$ in agreement with previous studies of Anderson transition belonging to the three-dimensional orthogonal universality class.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2017

Tailoring correlations of the local density of states in disordered photonic materials

We present experimental evidence for the different mechanisms driving the fluctuations of the local density of states (LDOS) in disordered photonic systems. We establish a clear link between the microscopic structure of the material and the frequency correlation function of LDOS accessed by a near-field hyperspectral imaging technique. We show, in particular, that short- and long-range frequency correlations of LDOS are controlled by different physical processes (multiple or single scattering processes, respectively) that can be---to some extent---manipulated independently. We also demonstrate that the single scattering contribution to LDOS fluctuations is sensitive to subwavelength features of the material and, in particular, to the correlation length of its dielectric function. Our work paves a way towards a complete control of statistical properties of disordered photonic systems, allowing for designing materials with predefined correlations of LDOS.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2017

Position-dependent radiative transfer as a tool for studying Anderson localization: Delay time, time-reversal and coherent backscattering

Previous work has established that the localized regime of wave transport in open media is characterized by a position-dependent diffusion coefficient. In this work we study how the concept of position-dependent diffusion affects the delay time, the transverse confinement, the coherent backscattering, and the time reversal of waves. Definitions of energy transport velocity of localized waves are proposed. We start with a phenomenological model of radiative transfer and then present a novel perturbational approach based on the self-consistent theory of localization. The latter allows us to obtain results relevant for realistic experiments in disordered quasi-1D wave guides and 3D slabs.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Finite-size scaling analysis of localization transition for scalar waves in a 3D ensemble of resonant point scatterers

We use the random Green's matrix model to study the scaling properties of the localization transition for scalar waves in a three-dimensional (3D) ensemble of resonant point scatterers. We show that the probability density $p(g)$ of normalized decay rates of quasi-modes $g$ is very broad at the transition and in the localized regime and that it does not obey a single-parameter scaling law for finite system sizes that we can access. The single-parameter scaling law holds, however, for the small-$g$ part of $p(g)$ which we exploit to estimate the critical exponent $ν$ of the localization transition. Finite-size scaling analysis of small-$q$ percentiles $g_q$ of $p(g)$ yields an estimate $ν\simeq 1.55 \pm 0.07$. This value is consistent with previous results for Anderson transition in the 3D orthogonal universality class and suggests that the localization transition under study belongs to the same class.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2016

Control of light trapping in a large atomic system by a static magnetic field

We propose to control light trapping in a large ensemble of cold atoms by an external, static magnetic field. For an appropriate choice of frequency and polarization of the exciting pulse, the field is expected to speed up the fluorescence of a dilute atomic system. In a dense ensemble, the field does not affect the early-time superradiant signal but amplifies intensity fluctuations at intermediate times and induces a very slow, nonexponential long-time decay. The slowing down of fluorescence is due to the excitation of spatially localized collective atomic states that appear only under a strong magnetic field and have exponentially long lifetimes. Our results therefore pave a way towards experimental observation of the disorder-induced localization of light in cold atomic systems.

physics.optics↗