Multiple scattering of cold atoms in disordered optical potentials with long-range correlations

Robert Kuhn

Theoretische Physik 1, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

We study multiple scattering of matter waves by a disordered optical potential in two and in three dimensions. In contrast to point-like impurities encountered in electron scattering, the fluctuations of an optical speckle pattern exhibit long-range correlations. We set up a diagrammatic Green's function approach and calculate ensemble-averaged propagators in the weak scattering regime. An analytical expression for the average Green's function allows to discuss the elastic scattering mean free path as a function of experimentally relevant parameters. The transport mean free path that enters the diffusion constant is calculated analytically from the single-scattering vertex showing strongly anisotropic scattering.