Measurement of smoothed Wigner phase-space distributions for small-angle scattering in a turbid medium.

Journal Article (Journal Article)

We study Wigner phase-space distributions W (x, p) in position (x) and momentum (p) for light undergoing multiple small-angle scattering in a turbid medium. Smoothed Wigner phase-space distributions are measured by using a heterodyne technique that achieves position and momentum resolution determined by the width and the diffraction angle of the local oscillator beam. The sample consists of 5.7-micron-radius polystyrene spheres suspended in a water-glycerol mixture. The momentum distribution of the transmitted light is found to contain a ballistic peak, a narrow diffractive pedestal, and a broad background. The narrow diffractive pedestal is found to decay more slowly than the ballistic peak as the concentration of scatterers is increased. The data are in excellent agreement with a simple theoretical model that explains the behavior of the narrow pedestal by including multiple diffractive scattering and treating large-angle scattering as a loss.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Wax, A; Thomas, JE

Published Date

  • July 1998

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 15 / 7

Start / End Page

  • 1896 - 1908

PubMed ID

  • 9656479

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1520-8532

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1084-7529

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1364/josaa.15.001896

Language

  • eng