Optical Properties of Nanostructured Random Media

Random inhomogeneous media may possess unique physical properties that are significantly enhanced and may attain a level of practical importance and versatility that rivals or surpasses their geometrically ordered counterparts. Making judicious use of these enhancement effects, as well as of other aspects of the many complex resonances that distinguish these systems, can lead to new and unexpected physics and many applications. Localization of various sorts of optical excitations occur and recur in a wide gamut of disordered systems, leading to the enhancement of many optical phenomena, especially nonlinear processes. The book reviews recent advances in the nonlinear optics of random media and discusses numerous applications based on the unique properties of nanostructured composite materials. The contributing authors are world best experts in the field and provide a state-of-the-art description of the world of the optics of random media.

This book reviews recent advances in one of the most prominent fields of physics. The optics of random media displays a rich variety of effects, and some of these effects are hardly intuitive. Localization of various sorts of optical excitations occur and recur in a wide gamut of disordered systems, such as inhomogeneous media, nanocomposite materials, layered structures, metal films and metal-dielectric composites. The contributors to the book are world best experts in the optics of random media; they provide a state-of-the-art review of recent developments in the field including nonlinear optical and magneto-optical properties, Raman and hyper-Raman scattering, laser action, plasmon excitation and localized giant fields, imaging and spectroscopy of random media.