Broky J, Douglass KM, Ellis J, Dogariu A. Fluctuations of scattered waves: going beyond the ensemble average.
Opt Express 2009;
17:10466-10471. [PMID:
19550442 DOI:
10.1364/oe.17.010466]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
The interaction between coherent waves and random media is a complicated, deterministic process that is usually examined upon ensemble averaging. The result of one realization of the interaction process depends on the specific disorder present in an experimentally controllable interaction volume. We show that this randomness can be quantified and structural information not apparent in the ensemble average can be obtained. We use the information entropy as a viable measure of randomness and we demonstrate that its rate of change provides means for discriminating between media with identical mean characteristics.
Collapse