Mesoscopic Physics with light in cold atoms

Guillaume Labeyrie

Institut Non Linéaire de Nice, CNRS, 1361 route des Lucioles, F-06560 Sophia Antipolis, France

I will present the main results obtained in our group on multiple scattering of light in cold atomic vapors. We primarily employ the so-called Coherent Backscattering effect (CBS) to probe the coherence length L in our sample. Several mechanisms contribute to reduce this coherence lenght, among which the internal structure of the atomic ground state, the residual atomic motion and inelastic scattering. We have experimentally studied each of these effects, which I will discuss in detail. Understanding these dephasing mechanisms is a prerequisite for the goal of achieving strong localization of light in cold atoms.