Anderson localization of light in dimension $d-1$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that surface modes enable light localization in higher-dimensional disordered systems, challenging previous beliefs that localization is prevented in such cases due to polarization effects.

Contribution

It reveals that surface modes in vectorial waves can induce localization in 3D and 2D systems, breaking previous limitations caused by polarization.

Findings

Surface modes exist in 3D and 2D vectorial waves.

Surface modes exhibit scaling consistent with localization.

Localization occurs in higher dimensions due to surface effects.

Abstract

Localization of electromagnetic waves in disordered potentials is prevented by polarization terms, so only light scattering systems of dimensions $d=1$ and $2$ with scalar properties exhibit light localization. We here show that this result breaks down due to the existence of surface modes, which possess lower-dimensional scattering properties. In particular, vectorial waves in $3D$ ($2D$) presents surface localized modes with scaling consistent with localization $2D$ ($1D$)