Induced dipole-dipole interactions in light diffusion from point dipoles

TL;DR

This paper presents a perturbative approach to analyze how induced dipole-dipole interactions affect light diffusion in disordered atomic clouds, accounting for vector light properties and improving understanding of energy transport.

Contribution

It introduces an exact second-order perturbative method for vector light interactions in disordered media, enhancing previous scalar models.

Findings

Induced dipole interactions modify energy transport velocity.

The approach provides more accurate scattering and transport mean free paths.

Results differ from scalar light models, highlighting the importance of vector effects.

Abstract

We develop a perturbative treatment of induced dipole-dipole interactions in the diffusive transport of electromagnetic waves through disordered atomic clouds. The approach is exact at order two in the atomic density and accounts for the vector character of light. It is applied to the calculation of the electromagnetic energy stored in the atomic cloud - which modifies the energy transport velocity - and of the light scattering and transport mean free paths. Results are compared to those obtained from a purely scalar model for light.