Conduction electrons diffuse freely through a pure metal. But if a metal’s disorder crosses a certain threshold, the electrons become trapped. This so-called Anderson localization arises from interference between the electrons’ paths. Light, being wave-like, could also experience Anderson localization. Proving that it does so has eluded experimenters and theorists alike. Two years ago, Alexey Yamilov of the Missouri University of Science and Technology and his collaborators used computer simulations to demonstrate that light can indeed be confined within a disordered medium [1]. Now they have shown that the transition to localization is Andersonian [2].
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