Anderson Localization of Light and Beyond

Anderson Localization is one of the most basic concepts in solid-state physics.
However, experiments on Anderson localization in electronic systems have eluded
scientists for many decades. Several decades after Anderson's prediction, the
concept has been extended to optics, and in 2007 our group has made the first
demonstration of Anderson localization in its original context, where random
fluctuations superimposed upon a periodic structure bring transport to a halt.
Many experimental works have followed in optics and matter-waves. But can
disorder work to increase transport beyond diffusion, and perhaps even beyond
ballistic transport? The talk will review the recent progress on Anderson
localization of light, and will describe experiments and theory demonstrating
disordered–enhanced transport in photonic quasicrystals, and hyper-transport of
light in photonic media with evolving disorder: a new regime of transport in
which an arbitrary wavepacket expands at a rate faster than ballistic.