Propagation of Coherent Radiation in Disordered Media: Mesoscopic Effects

Important mesoscopic phenomena accompanying the propagation of classical waves in a random medium are considered. The long range spatial and spectral correlations are analyzed and it is shown that the presence of absorption modifies qualitatively the spectral correlation function. The influence of mesoscopic fluctuations on the intensity distribution function is considered. It is shown that only for small values of intensity is the distribution function a simple exponent, as predicted by Rayleigh statistics. For larger values of intensity, the distribution function differs drastically from a simple exponential and the asymptotic behavior is a stretched exponential. Also considered is the slowing down of the diffusion in the medium with resonance scatterers.