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Frontiers in Optics

Interference and dephasing in weak localization of light

Mark D. Havey, Salim Balik, R. G. Olave, Charles I. Sukenik, Igor M. Sokolov, Dmitriy V. Kuprianov

Published Jan 1, 2004• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report effects influencing enhancement (E) in coherent backscattering (CBS) of resonance radiation from ultracold Rb, and may have strong influence on efforts to observe strong localization. Theoretical results predict destructive interference in CBS, E<1. Time-dependent measurements of E show the influence of time-separation of different light scattering orders.

DOI
10.1364/fio.2004.fwp2

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We report effects influencing enhancement (E) in coherent backscattering (CBS) of resonance radiation from ultracold Rb, and may have strong influence on efforts to observe strong localization. Theoretical results predict destructive interference in CBS, E<1. Time-dependent measurements of E show the influence of time-separation of different light scattering orders.
Since the work of Anderson on localization, interference effects for the propagation of a wave in the presence of disorder have been extensively studied, as exemplified in coherent backscattering (CBS) of light. In the multiple scattering of light by a disordered sample of thermal atoms, interference effects are usually washed out by the fast atomic motion. This is no longer true for cold atoms where CBS has recently been observed. However, the internal structure of the atoms strongly influences the interference properties. In this paper, we consider light scattering by an atomic dipole transition with arbitrary degeneracy and study its impact on coherent backscattering. We show that the interference contrast is strongly reduced. Assuming a uniform statistical distribution over internal degrees of freedom, we compute analytically the single- and double-scattering contributions to the intensity in the weak-localization regime. The so-called ladder and crossed diagrams are generalized to the case of atoms and permit to calculate enhancement factors and backscattering intensity profiles for polarized light and any closed atomic dipole transition.
We consider the influence of a resonant control field on weak localization of light in ultracold atomic ensembles. Both steady-state and pulsed light excitation are considered. We show that the presence of a control field essentially changes the type of interference effects that occur under conditions of multiple scattering. For example, for some scattering polarization channels the presence of a control field can cause destructive interference through which the enhancement factor, normally considered to be greater than one, becomes less than one.
Weak localization of light or coherent backscattering (CBS) of light is a phenomena in which partial waves traversing momentum-reversed (time-reversed) scattering paths interfere constructively in the backscattering direction leading to an enhancement of scattered light intensity. The enhancement of intensity is proportional to a reduction of light transported in the scattering medium. Thus the CBS signal is a measure of localization of light in the scattering medium. We are building an apparatus to observe weak localization of photons in a high density sample of ultra-cold atoms. First we slow the atoms from room temperature (300 m/s) to less than 10 cm/s in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) where the atom number density is 10 11 atoms/cm 3 . In order to increase the atomic density the atoms in the MOT are transferred to a far detuned microscopic dipole trap created by a laser focused to a waist of approximately 5m. We have successfully loaded the MOT and are now in the process of loading the high density microscopic dipole trap. Once this is achieved we will look at the CBS signal as a function of the atom number density and the scattering cross section. The goal of the project is to reach the Joffe-Regel region where mean free path length is about the wavelength of the scattering radiation.
We report on the direct observation of coherent backscattering (CBS) of ultracold atoms in a quasi-two-dimensional configuration. Launching atoms with a well-defined momentum in a laser speckle disordered potential, we follow the progressive build up of the momentum scattering pattern, consisting of a ring associated with multiple elastic scattering, and the CBS peak in the backward direction. Monitoring the depletion of the initial momentum component and the formation of the angular ring profile allows us to determine microscopic transport quantities. We also study the time evolution of the CBS peak and find it in fair agreement with predictions, at long times as well as at short times. The observation of CBS can be considered a direct signature of coherence in quantum transport of particles in disordered media. It is responsible for the so called weak localization phenomenon, which is the precursor of Anderson localization.