Nonlinear effects in Anderson localization of light by two-level atoms

Abstract: While Anderson is a single-particle wave effect, guaranteeing a single excitation in the system can be challenging. We here tackle this limitation in the context of light localization in three dimensions in disordered cold atom clouds, in presence of several photons. We show that the presence of these multiple excitations does not affect substantially the abnormal intensity fluctuations which characterize the Anderson localization transition, provided that the radiated light is frequency filtered. Due to their narrow linewidth, long-lived modes, and particularly the localized ones, are strongly saturated even for a weak resonant pump, leading to a large increase of the inelastic scattering and to reduced fluctuations in the total radiation. Yet the atomic coherences and the resulting elastic scattering remain a proper witness of the Anderson localization transition. Hence, frequency filtering allows one to investigate the single-excitation sector, dismissing the many-body effects showing up in the fluorescence spectrum.