Observation of mean path length invariance in light-scattering media

Romolo Savo; Romain Pierrat; Ulysse Najar; Rémi Carminati; Stefan Rotter; Sylvain Gigan

doi:10.1126/science.aan4054

Observation of mean path length invariance in light-scattering media

Romolo Savo
, Romain Pierrat
, Ulysse Najar
, Rémi Carminati
, Stefan Rotter
, Sylvain Gigan

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The microstructure of a medium strongly influences how light propagates through it. The amount of disorder it contains determines whether the medium is transparent or opaque. Theory predicts that exciting such a medium homogeneously and isotropically makes some of its optical properties depend only on the medium’s outer geometry. Here, we report an optical experiment demonstrating that the mean path length of light is invariant with respect to the microstructure of the medium it scatters through. Using colloidal solutions with varying concentration and particle size, the invariance of the mean path length is observed over nearly two orders of magnitude in scattering strength. Our results can be extended to a wide range of systems—however ordered, correlated, or disordered—and apply to all wave-scattering problems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	765-768
Journal	Science
Volume	358
Issue number	6364
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan4054
Publication status	Published - 10 Nov 2017
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors thank P. Ambichl, J. Bertolotti, A. Haber, S. Hallegatte, and J. Schwarz for fruitful discussions and C. Francois-Martin, F. Pincet, and T. Narita for technical assistance with the dynamic light scattering machine. This research was supported by the European Research Council (project reference 278025). R.P. and R.C. were supported by LABEX WIFI (Laboratory of Excellence within the French Program “Investments for the Future”) under references ANR-10-LABX-24 and ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*. S.R. was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through project SFB NextLite F49-P10.

Funders	Funder number
Seventh Framework Programme
European Research Council
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	278025, 724473, 737135
Labex WIFI	ANR-10-LABX-24, ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL*
Austrian Science Fund	F49-P10

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title = "Observation of mean path length invariance in light-scattering media",

abstract = "The microstructure of a medium strongly influences how light propagates through it. The amount of disorder it contains determines whether the medium is transparent or opaque. Theory predicts that exciting such a medium homogeneously and isotropically makes some of its optical properties depend only on the medium{\textquoteright}s outer geometry. Here, we report an optical experiment demonstrating that the mean path length of light is invariant with respect to the microstructure of the medium it scatters through. Using colloidal solutions with varying concentration and particle size, the invariance of the mean path length is observed over nearly two orders of magnitude in scattering strength. Our results can be extended to a wide range of systems—however ordered, correlated, or disordered—and apply to all wave-scattering problems.",

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AU - Pierrat, Romain

AU - Najar, Ulysse

AU - Carminati, Rémi

AU - Rotter, Stefan

AU - Gigan, Sylvain

PY - 2017/11/10

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AB - The microstructure of a medium strongly influences how light propagates through it. The amount of disorder it contains determines whether the medium is transparent or opaque. Theory predicts that exciting such a medium homogeneously and isotropically makes some of its optical properties depend only on the medium’s outer geometry. Here, we report an optical experiment demonstrating that the mean path length of light is invariant with respect to the microstructure of the medium it scatters through. Using colloidal solutions with varying concentration and particle size, the invariance of the mean path length is observed over nearly two orders of magnitude in scattering strength. Our results can be extended to a wide range of systems—however ordered, correlated, or disordered—and apply to all wave-scattering problems.

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JF - Science

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ER -

Observation of mean path length invariance in light-scattering media

Abstract

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