From chaos to disorder: Statistics of the eigenfunctions of microwave cavities

Abstract

We study the statistics of the experimental eigenfunctions of chaotic and disordered microwave billiards in terms of the moments of their spatial distributions, such as the Inverse Participation Ratio (IPR) and density-density auto-correlation. A path from chaos to disorder is described in terms of increasing IPR. In the chaotic, ballistic limit, the data correspond well with universal results from random matrix theory. Deviations from universal distributions are observed due to disorder induced localization, and for the weakly disordered case the data are well-described by including finite conductance and mean free path contributions in the framework of nonlinear sigma models of supersymetry.