Light Transport in Complex Photonic Systems

The transport of light in complex dielectric materials is a rich and fascinating topic of research. With complex dielectrics we intend dielectric structures with an index of refraction that has variations on a length scales that is very roughly comparable to the wavelength. Such structures strongly scatter light. A possible building block for constructing a complex dielectric is a micro sphere of diameter comparable to the wavelength and of a certain refractive index that is different from its surrounding medium. The single scattering from such a sphere has a rich structure due to internal resonances in the sphere, but its behaviour is well-understood and can be calculated using the formalism of Mie-scattering [1]. A complex dielectric material can then be realized by micro-assembly of several micro spheres.