Generating particle-like scattering states in wave transport

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to generate wave states that resemble particle trajectories in complex scattering systems, enabling highly collimated wave transport with potential applications in secure communication.

Contribution

A novel procedure to produce deterministic, trajectory-like scattering states using only the scattering matrix, applicable to various complex media.

Findings

Successfully tested numerically in different cavity types

States are eigenstates of the Wigner-Smith time-delay and transmission matrices

States exhibit classical-like, noiseless transmission eigenvalues

Abstract

We introduce a procedure to generate scattering states which display trajectory-like wave function patterns in wave transport through complex scatterers. These deterministic scattering states feature the dual property of being eigenstates to the Wigner-Smith time-delay matrix and to the transmission matrix with classical (noiseless) transmission eigenvalues close to 0 or 1. Our procedure to create such beam-like states is based solely on the scattering matrix and successfully tested numerically for regular, chaotic and disordered cavities. These results pave the way for the experimental realization of highly collimated wave fronts in transport through complex media with possible applications like secure and low-power communication.