2006/10/17 by Éric Akkermans, E. Akkermans, Akkermans, E. +2
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0610454
4 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2006/10/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We show that a new interference effect appears in the intensity fluctuations of photons multiply scattered by an atomic gas of large optical depth b. This interference occurs only for scattering atoms that are Zeeman degenerate and it leads to a deviation from the Rayleigh law. The fluctuations measured by their variance, display a resonance peak as a function of an applied magnetic field. The resonance width is proportional to the small factor 1/b. We derive closed analytic expressions for all these physical quantities which are directly accessible experimentally.