Waves And Imaging Through Complex Media

Recent advances in wave propagation in random media are certainly consequences of new approaches to fundamental issues, as well as of a strong interest in potential applications. A collective effort has been made to present in this book the state of the art in fundamental concepts, as well as in biomedical imaging techniques. As an example, the recent introduction of wave chaos, and more specifically random matrix theory - an old tool from nuclear physics - to the study of multiple scattering, has pointed the way to a deeper understanding of wave coherence in complex media. At the same time, efficient new approaches for retrieving information from random media promise to allow wave imaging of small tumors in opaque tissues. Review chapters are written by experts in the field, with the aim of making the book accessible to the widest possible scientific audience: graduate students and research scientists in theoretical and applied physics, optics, acoustics, and biomedical physics.

In this interdisciplinary book, leading experts in underwater acoustics, seismology, acoustic medical imaging and non-destructive testing present basic concepts as well as the recent advances in imaging. The different subjects tackled show significant similarities.

A collection of lectures on a variety of modern subjects in wave scattering, including fundamental issues in mesoscopic physics and radiative transfer, recent hot topics such as random lasers, liquid crystals, lefthanded materials and time-reversal, as well as modern applications in imaging and communication. There is a strong emphasis on the interdisciplinary aspects of wave propagation, including light and microwaves, acoustic and elastic waves, propagating in a variety of "complex" materials (liquid crystals, media with gain, natural media, magneto-optical media, photonic and phononic materials, etc.). It addresses many different items in contemporary research: mesoscopic fluctuations, localization, radiative transfer, symmetry aspects, and time-reversal. It also discusses new (potential) applications in telecommunication, soft matter and imaging.

There is a great deal of current research into wave propagation in random media, in such fields as applied mathematics, acoustics, optics, materials science, atomic physics and geophysics. This book provides accurate theoretical and practical introductions at research level to topics such as: localization of waves, band gap materials, random matrices, dielectric media, laser cooled atoms, wave scattering from rough surfaces, randomly layered media, seismic waves and imaging the earth.

This book contains review papers presented at the International Workshop on Wave Propagation, Scattering and Emission on Theory, Experiment, Simulation and Inversion (WPSE). The papers are of high quality, covering broad areas: a new mechanism of interaction of electromagnetic waves with complex media, remote sensing information, computational electromagnetics, etc. This book summarizes the most significant progress in wave propagation, encompassing theory, experiment, simulation, and inversion. It will also serve as a good reference for scientists in future research.List of Foreign Invited Speakers: Henry Bertoni (Brooklyn Polytechnic University), Lawrence Carin (Duke U), Al Chang (NASA, Goddard), Margaret Cheney (Rensselaer Polytech Institute), Weng Chew (U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign), Shane Cloude (AEL Consultants, UK), Adrian Fung (U of Texas at Arlington), Al Gasiewski (Environmental Tech Lab, NOAA), Martti Hallikainen (Helsinki U of Technology), Akira Ishimaru (U of Washington), Magdy Iskander (U of Hawaii), J A Kong (MIT), Roger Lang (George Washington U), Alex Maradudin (U of California at Irvine), Eric Michielssen (U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign), Eni Njoku (Caltech, Jet Propulsion Lab), Carey Rappaport (Northeastern U), Marc Saillard (Institut Fresnel), Kamal Sarabandi (U of Michigan), David R Smith (U of California at San Diego), Mitsuo Tateiba (Kyushu University), George Uslenghi (U of Illinois at Chicago), and Werner Wiesbeck (Karlsruhe U).

This book offers a clear and interdisciplinary introduction to the structural and scattering properties of complex photonic media, focusing on deterministic aperiodic structures and their conceptual roots in geometry and number theory. It integrates important results and recent developments into a coherent and physically consistent story, balanced between mathematical designs, scattering and optical theories, and engineering device applications. The book includes discussions of emerging device applications in metamaterials and nano-optics technology. Both academia and industry will find the book of interest as it develops the underlying physical and mathematical background in partnership with engineering applications, providing a perspective on both fundamental optical sciences and photonic device technology. Emphasizing the comprehension of physical concepts and their engineering implications over the more formal developments, this is an essential introduction to the stimulating and fast-growing field of aperiodic optics and complex photonics.

This book offers a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art theoretical and experimental advances in linear and nonlinear parity-time-symmetric systems in various physical disciplines, and surveys the emerging applications of parity-time (PT) symmetry. PT symmetry originates from quantum mechanics, where if the Schrodinger operator satisfies the PT symmetry, then its spectrum can be all real. This concept was later introduced into optics, Bose-Einstein condensates, metamaterials, electric circuits, acoustics, mechanical systems and many other fields, where a judicious balancing of gain and loss constitutes a PT-symmetric system. Even though these systems are dissipative, they exhibit many signature properties of conservative systems, which make them mathematically and physically intriguing. Important PT-symmetry applications have also emerged. This book describes the latest advances of PT symmetry in a wide range of physical areas, with contributions from the leading experts. It is intended for researchers and graduate students to enter this research frontier, or use it as a reference book.

Quantum mesoscopic physics covers a whole class in interference effects related to the propagation of waves in complex and random media. These effects are ubiquitous in physics, from the behaviour of electrons in metals and semiconductors to the propagation of electromagnetic waves in suspensions such as colloids, and quantum systems like cold atomic gases. A solid introduction to quantum mesoscopic physics, this book is a modern account of the problem of coherent wave propagation in random media. It provides a unified account of the basic theoretical tools and methods, highlighting the common aspects of the various optical and electronic phenomena involved and presenting a large number of experimental results. With over 200 figures, and exercises throughout, the book was originally published in 2007 and is ideal for graduate students in physics, electrical engineering, applied physics, acoustics and astrophysics. It will also be an interesting reference for researchers.