1998/06/22 by C. W. J. Beenakker · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.81.1829
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1829 (1998) · 4 pages, including 2 figures
arxiv created 1998/06/22 · arxiv updated 2016/09/08
We compute the statistics of thermal emission from systems in which the radiation is scattered chaotically, by relating the photocount distribution to the scattering matrix - whose statistical properties are known from random-matrix theory. We find that the super-Poissonian noise is that of a black body with a reduced number of degrees of freedom. The general theory is applied to a disordered slab and to a chaotic cavity, and is extended to include amplifying as well as absorbing systems. We predict an excess noise of amplified spontaneous emission in a random laser below the laser threshold.