Publications [#248535] of John E. Thomas

Papers Published

1. Wax, A; Thomas, JE, Measurement of smoothed Wigner phase-space distributions for small-angle scattering in a turbid medium., Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision, vol. 15 no. 7 (July, 1998), pp. 1896-1908, ISSN 1084-7529 [9656479], [doi]
   (last updated on 2026/01/13)

   Abstract:
   We study Wigner phase-space distributions W (x, p) in position (x) and momentum (p) for light undergoing multiple small-angle scattering in a turbid medium. Smoothed Wigner phase-space distributions are measured by using a heterodyne technique that achieves position and momentum resolution determined by the width and the diffraction angle of the local oscillator beam. The sample consists of 5.7-micron-radius polystyrene spheres suspended in a water-glycerol mixture. The momentum distribution of the transmitted light is found to contain a ballistic peak, a narrow diffractive pedestal, and a broad background. The narrow diffractive pedestal is found to decay more slowly than the ballistic peak as the concentration of scatterers is increased. The data are in excellent agreement with a simple theoretical model that explains the behavior of the narrow pedestal by including multiple diffractive scattering and treating large-angle scattering as a loss.