Random matrix theory and universal perfect transmission in opaque media

Materials such as eggshells, turbid water and white paper are considered opaque because scattering frustrates the passage of light through such media. Consequently, only a small portion of the incident light will emerge through the medium. Surprisingly, it turns out that it "nearly always" possible to engineer a wavefront, tailored specifically to the medium, that will achieve near perfect transmission, In other words, the material will behave as though it is transparent to this specific wavefront. We use random matrix theory to study this phenomena and show why we might expect perfect transmission in nearly all sparse yet opaque random media and why it will be possible to construct these wavefronts efficiently using just a handful of measurements. We conclude by speculating on new opportunities and applications that might be enabled by these insights and advances.

This is joint work with Curtis Jin and Eric Michielssen.