Measurement of the Probability Distribution of Total Transmission in Random Waveguides

TL;DR

This paper measures the probability distribution of microwave transmission in random waveguides, revealing non-Gaussian behavior with exponential tails, and compares results with theoretical models for nonabsorbing samples.

Contribution

It provides experimental data on total transmission distribution in waveguides with g near unity and validates theoretical predictions for non-Gaussian distributions.

Findings

Distributions are non-Gaussian with exponential tails.

Measured distributions match diagrammatic and random matrix calculations.

Results apply to nonabsorbing samples with g >> 1.

Abstract

Measurements have been made of the probability distribution of total transmission of microwave radiation in waveguides filled with randomly positioned scatterers which would have values of the dimensionless conductance g near unity. The distributions are markedly non-Gaussian and have exponential tails. The measured distributions are accurately described by diagrammatic and random matrix calculations carried out for nonabsorbing samples in the limit g >> 1 when g is expressed in terms of the variance of the distribution, which equals the degree of long-range intensity correlation across the output face of the sample.