We consider the information content h of a scalar multiple-scattered, diffuse
wave field ψ(r) and the information capacity C of a communication
channel that employs diffuse waves to transfer the information through a
disordered medium. Both h and C are shown to be directly related to the
mesoscopic correlations between the values of ψ(r) at different
positions r in space, arising due to the coherent nature of the wave.
For the particular case of a communication channel between two identical linear
arrays of n≫1 equally-spaced transmitters/receivers (receiver spacing a),
we show that the average capacity ∝n and obtain explicit analytic
expressions for /n in the limit of n→∞ and kℓ→∞,
where k=2π/λ, λ is the wavelength, and ℓ is the mean
free path. Modification of the above results in the case of finite but large n
and kℓ is discussed as well.Comment: REVTeX 4, 12 pages, 7 figure