Photonic Phase Transitions in Certain Disordered Media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized mode-expansion method for vector lightwaves in 3D disordered media, revealing a photonic phase transition from extended to mixed states as disorder increases, with implications for understanding light localization.

Contribution

It develops a new mode-expansion scheme and characterizes the phase transition in disordered media based on optical parameters.

Findings

Identifies a phase transition at a specific localization parameter value

Formulates the transition in terms of optical and geometric parameters

Provides a theoretical framework for light localization in disordered media

Abstract

In this paper we develop a generalized mode-expansion scheme for the vector lightwaves propagating in 3D disordered media, and find the photonic phase transition from an extended-state (ES) phase to a mixed-state (MS) phase as a localization intensity parameter $G$ rises above $1/\sqrt{2}$. For the disordered media consisting of plenty of uniform spherical scattering particles, we formulate this phenomena at first in terms of actual optical and geometric parameters of the disordered media.