Observation of transverse coherent backscattering in disordered photonic structures

TL;DR

This paper reports the experimental observation of transverse coherent backscattering, a signature of weak localization, in a disordered (2+1)D photonic structure using optical induction with a nondiffracting random pattern.

Contribution

It demonstrates the first experimental observation of transverse coherent backscattering in a disordered photonic structure using a novel optical induction method.

Findings

Signatures of transverse coherent backscattering observed at specific spatial frequencies.

Weak localization effects confirmed in a (2+1)D disordered photonic system.

Statistical analysis of output spectra reveals backscattering phenomena.

Abstract

We report on the experimental observation of weak localization in an optically induced disordered (2+1)-dimensional photonic structure. Our flexible method of optical induction is applied with a nondiffracting random intensity distribution. We focus on the analysis of a statistical output spectrum for many probe events with variance of the incoming beam's transverse spatial frequency. For particular spatial frequencies we find considerable signatures of transverse coherent backscattering.