Photon thermalization in a disordered scattering medium
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Soncin, Lorenzo Pierrat, Romain De Wilde, Yannick Carminati, Rémi Krachmalnicoff, Valentina |
| author_facet | Soncin, Lorenzo Pierrat, Romain De Wilde, Yannick Carminati, Rémi Krachmalnicoff, Valentina |
| contents | Thermalization of light, where photons acquire a temperature and chemical potential analogous to a material gas, remains a striking yet experimentally elusive manifestation of quantum statistical physics. To date, it has been realized only in carefully engineered photonic environments that enforce repeated absorption-emission cycles. Here we show that such thermalization can emerge in a radically simpler setting: an open scattering medium. Using a pumped fluorescent dye solution doped with colloidal particles, we demonstrate that multiple scattering alone suffices to trap photons long enough to drive them to thermal equilibrium. The emitted radiation follows a Bose-Einstein distribution with a finite chemical potential, independently tunable via optical pumping, while its temperature is set by the host medium. A clear spectroscopic signature of thermalization is observed as a plateau at the sample temperature over a finite spectral range. Our results establish disordered scattering media as a generic platform for photon thermalization, extending this fundamental phenomenon beyond resonant cavities and opening new routes towards cavity-free photonic thermodynamics and thermal light sources operating under ambient conditions. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_01997 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Photon thermalization in a disordered scattering medium Soncin, Lorenzo Pierrat, Romain De Wilde, Yannick Carminati, Rémi Krachmalnicoff, Valentina Optics Thermalization of light, where photons acquire a temperature and chemical potential analogous to a material gas, remains a striking yet experimentally elusive manifestation of quantum statistical physics. To date, it has been realized only in carefully engineered photonic environments that enforce repeated absorption-emission cycles. Here we show that such thermalization can emerge in a radically simpler setting: an open scattering medium. Using a pumped fluorescent dye solution doped with colloidal particles, we demonstrate that multiple scattering alone suffices to trap photons long enough to drive them to thermal equilibrium. The emitted radiation follows a Bose-Einstein distribution with a finite chemical potential, independently tunable via optical pumping, while its temperature is set by the host medium. A clear spectroscopic signature of thermalization is observed as a plateau at the sample temperature over a finite spectral range. Our results establish disordered scattering media as a generic platform for photon thermalization, extending this fundamental phenomenon beyond resonant cavities and opening new routes towards cavity-free photonic thermodynamics and thermal light sources operating under ambient conditions. |
| title | Photon thermalization in a disordered scattering medium |
| topic | Optics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01997 |