Light transport in chiral and magnetochiral random media

J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2003 Jan;20(1):99-105. doi: 10.1364/josaa.20.000099.

Abstract

We present a microscopic approach to study electromagnetic wave propagation in media with broken mirror symmetry. We introduce and calculate the transport mean free path l*C associated with the residual polarization of diffuse light in chiral systems. In chiral media subject to an external magnetic field B, all symmetry requirements exist to create a macroscopic "super" light current in the direction of B that persists even in the absence of a spatial photon density gradient. However, we show that such a current is identically zero in our model. We finally show the existence of a linear magnetotransmission in magnetochiral media.