Random matrix description of dynamically backscattered coherent waves propagating in a wide-field-illuminated random medium

Abstract: The wave propagation in random medium plays a critical role in optics and quantum physics. Multiple scattering of coherent wave in a random medium determines the transport procedure. Brownian motions of the scatterers perturb each propagation trajectory and form dynamic speckle patterns in the backscattered direction. In this study, we applied the random matrix theory (RMT) to investigate the eigenvalue density of the backscattered intensity matrix. We find that the dynamic speckle patterns can be utilized to decouple the singly and multiply backscattered components. The Wishart random matrix of multiple scattering component is well described by the Marcenko-Pastur law, while the single scattering part has low-rank characteristic. We therefore propose a strategy for estimating the first and the second order moments of single and multiple scattering components, respectively, based on the Marcenko-Pastur law and trace analysis. Electric field Monte Carlo simulation and in-vivo experiments demonstrate its potential applications in hidden absorbing object detection and in-vivo blood flow imaging. Our method can be applied to other coherent domain elastic scattering phenomenon for wide-filed propagation of microwave, ultrasound and etc.