Transition from Diffusive to Localized Regimes in Surface Corrugated Optical Waveguides

TL;DR

This paper presents exact calculations showing how surface corrugation in optical waveguides causes a transition from diffusive to localized light transport, revealing oscillatory behavior in key transport parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the transition from diffusive to localized regimes in corrugated waveguides using exact calculations and draws analogies with electron conduction.

Findings

Transition from diffusive to localized transport with increasing waveguide length

Oscillatory behavior of mean free path and localization length versus wavelength

Exact calculations of transmittance in surface corrugated waveguides

Abstract

Exact calculations of the transmittance of surface corrugated optical waveguides are presented. The elastic scattering of diffuse light or other electromagnetic waves from a rough surface induces a diffusive transport along the waveguide axis. As the length of the corrugated part of the waveguide increases, a transition from the diffusive to the localized regime is observed. This involves an analogy with electron conduction in nanowires, and hence, a concept analogous to that of ``resistance'' can be introduced. We show an oscillatory behavior of both the elastic mean free path and the localization length versus the wavelength.