Broadband Coherent Enhancement of Transmission and Absorption in Disordered Media

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a single optimized wavefront can significantly enhance broadband transmission or absorption in disordered media by exploiting long-range correlations, with theoretical and numerical validation.

Contribution

It introduces a matrix-based eigenvalue approach to identify optimal wavefronts for broadband enhancement in disordered media, revealing effects beyond spectral correlation limits.

Findings

Single wavefront achieves broad spectral enhancement

Analytic theory matches numerical simulations

Long-range correlations enable broadband control

Abstract

We study the optimal diffusive transmission and absorption of broadband or polychromatic light in a disordered medium. By introducing matrices describing broadband transmission and reflection, we formulate an extremal eigenvalue problem where the optimal input wavefront is given by the corresponding eigenvector. We show analytically that a single wavefront can exhibit strongly enhanced total transmission or total absorption across a bandwidth that is orders of magnitude broader than the spectral correlation width of the medium, due to long-range correlations in coherent diffusion. We find excellent agreement between the analytic theory and numerical simulations.