Time-resolved phase-space distributions for light backscattered from it disordered medium

We demonstrate time-resolved measurement of optical phase-space distributio ns as a new probe for investigating the propagation of light in disordered media. Phase-space techniques measure the joint transverse position and mom entum distribution of the scattered light, and are sensitive to the spatial ly varying phase and amplitude of the field. Using this method we investiga te tight backscattered from a random medium. The measurements indicate that the weakly localized component is a phase conjugate of the incident light field. A new model of backscatter, based on Wigner phase-space distribution s, elucidates the spatial and angular behavior of the localized and unlocal ized components.