Faraday rotation in a disordered medium

Abstract

The Faraday rotation angle Θ is calculated in a diffusive regime in a three dimensional disordered slab. It is shown that tan Θ is (i) an oscillating function of the magnetic field or the medium's internal properties, and (ii) proportional to the ratio of the inelastic mean free path l in to the mean free path l, that is to the average number of photon scatterings. The maximum rotation is achieved at frequencies when the photon's elastic mean free path is minimal. We have obtained the rotation angle of polar backscattered light taking into account the maximally crossed diagrams. The latter leads to an ellipticity in the backscattered wave that can serve as precursor of weak localization.The critical strength of magnetic field B c ∼ g c ∼ λ/l beyond which rotation in backscattered wave disappears. The traversal time of an electromagnetic wave through the slab is estimated in a diffusive regime. The disorder enhanced the traversal time by an additional factor l in /l, in comparison with a free light propagation time. Comparison with the experimental data is carried out.

Plasmon-enhanced Faraday rotation in thin films

“…Recall that the scattered field is determined by Eq. (12) and that the terms < |H s ± | 2 > do not contribute to the real part of Faraday angle because the denominator of Eq. (28) is real.…”

“…According to Ref. 12 the Faraday rotation angle in 3D disordered system is inversely proportional to the photon elastic mean free path, depends on the frequency, and has a minimum at the frequency of nanoparticle local plasmon resonance, due to a large scattering cross section.…”

Effects of interband transitions on Faraday rotation in metallic nanoparticles

“…The matrixΩ 2 on the LHS of (20) has the same kind of symmetry as that of˜ in (11), because the diagonal elements are equal and the imaginary off-diagonal elements differ only in sign. This meansΩ 2 has the same eigenvectors, which are the right and left circular polarization states.…”

Inverse Smith–Purcell effect near rough surfaces

“…(17), the quantity P D (ω) is proportional to P r (ω), with prefactor l in /l, which is the average number of polariton scatterings in the system. In the diffusion regime the ratio is large number, i.e l in /l ≫ 1, see also [14], justifying that the diffusion contribution is dominant. It is important to notice, that one of the advantages of the random surface profile is that the external light incident angle can be arbitrary instead the certain one in the periodical case.…”