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Photon localization in time and space.

01 January 1988

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Photon transport in strongly scattering random media has been examined by two methods in order to search for evidence of photon localization. The first, and novel, method measures the evolution of the shape of a 50 psec pulse injected via an optical fiber into the interior of the random medium. It permits quite sensitive measures of departure from simple diffusive photon transport. The second method utilizes laser speckle autocorrelation spectroscopy, which in principle provides the same information. However, we show that the relationship between such spectra and the properties of the random medium is more complicated than previously assumed, requiring considerable care in interpretation. Several systems have been shown to exhibit small departures from simple diffusive transport, but have not shown strong photon localization.