Modal makeup of transmission eigenchannels

Transmission eigenchannels and quasi-normal modes are powerful bases for describing wave transport and controlling transmission and energy storage in disordered media. Here we elucidate the connection between these approaches by expressing the transmission matrix (TM) at a particular frequency as a sum of TMs for individual modes drawn from a broad spectral range. The wide range of transmission eigenvalues and correlation frequencies of eigenchannels of transmission is explained by the increasingly off-resonant excitation of modes contributing to eigenchannels with decreasing transmission and by the phasing between these contributions

Statistics and control of waves in disordered media

Fundamental concepts in the quasi-one-dimensional geometry of disordered wires and random waveguides in which ideas of scaling and the transmission matrix were first introduced are reviewed. We discuss the use of the transmission matrix to describe the scaling, fluctuations, delay time, density of states, and control of waves propagating through and within disordered systems. Microwave measurements, random matrix theory calculations, and computer simulations are employed to study the statistics of transmission and focusing in single samples and the scaling of the probability distribution of transmission and transmittance in random ensembles. Finally, we explore the disposition of the energy density of transmission eigenchannels inside random media.Comment: 28 Pages, 18 Figures (Review