Coherent multiple light scattering in Faraday active materials

Wave propagation in multiple scattering media shows various kinds of coherent phenomena such as coherent backscattering [1,2] or Anderson localization [3], both of which are intimately connected to the concept of reciprocity. Manipulating reciprocity in such media is a powerful tool to study these phenomena in experiments [4]. Here we discuss the manipulation of reciprocity in reflection and transmission geometry for the case of light propagation in magneto-optical media. We show new experiments on coherent backscattering and speckle correlations in strongly scattering samples containing Faraday active materials (CeF3) with transport mean free path in the μm range, at low temperatures (T < 10K) and high fields (B = 18T). Under such conditions we observe the effect of a Faraday rotation saturation in multiple scattering measurements.