2000/02/29 by Thibaut Jonckheere, Cord A. Müller, Cord A. Mueller +3 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Random lasers and scattering media #cond-mat.dis-nn #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.4269
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4269 (2000) · 4 pages RevTex, 2 figures. v3: Minor changes in the text, published version
arxiv created 2000/11/13 · openalex publication_date 2000/11/13 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Coherent backscattering is a multiple scattering interference effect which enhances the diffuse reflection off a disordered sample in the backward direction. Classically, the enhanced intensity is twice the average background under well chosen experimental conditions. We show how the quantum internal structure of atomic scatterers leads to a significantly smaller enhancement. Theoretical results for double scattering in the weak localization regime are presented which confirm recent experimental observations.