Light scattering by dense atomic samples: temporal properties of the light emission in the linear and saturated regimes

Abstract

The behavior of the light scattering in 3D disordered samples of mean free path smaller than one wavelength is a long-standing open question. The several tentative measurements for the Anderson localization of light in this regime showed inconclusive, and recent theoretical work questioned the emergence of the phenomena. Understanding the light transport properties in dense media, apart from the fundamental interest, has applications for the imaging of biological tissues, for improving the spatial resolution of imaging systems, and for the quest of entanglement of building blocks for quantum memories and quantum computation. This project aims, first, at investigating this problem within a cold atomic cloud of isotropic atoms, by accessing important observables such as the temporal correlation functions of the scattered light and the temporal behavior of the light emission by the dense cloud. The temporal decay of the light emission present collective effects linked to the mutual coherence of the atoms within the cloud and to the interference between the emission of each one of them. In this project, we also want to investigate the crossover between the linear superradiance and the superradiance of inverted atomic ensembles, as a way to put into evidence the role of the mutual coherence to the superradiant emission.