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Physical Review Letters

Dynamic multiple scattering: Ballistic photons and the breakdown of the photon-diffusion approximation

Isaac Freund, M. Kaveh, M. Rosenbluh

Published Mar 21, 1988• 61 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We find experimentally that in the forward direction the length scale of quasiballistic photons dominates the dynamic intensity-intensity correlation function of light multiply scattered from randomly diffusing spheres. This implies a breakdown of the photon-diffusion approximation, which is characterized by a single length, the transport mean free path. We suggest why this breakdown occurs, introduce phenomenologically a dynamic correlation length as an additional length scale, and with this extension reconcile the theory with experiment.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.60.1130

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We find experimentally that in the forward direction the length scale of quasiballistic photons dominates the dynamic intensity-intensity correlation function of light multiply scattered from randomly diffusing spheres. This implies a breakdown of the photon-diffusion approximation, which is characterized by a single length, the transport mean free path. We suggest why this breakdown occurs, introduce phenomenologically a dynamic correlation length as an additional length scale, and with this extension reconcile the theory with experiment.
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