Dynamic light scattering in subdiffusive regimes

For describing the fluctuating signal scattered from a multiple-scattering system, diffusive-wave spectroscopy makes use of a diffusion model that provides the path-length distribution of scattered waves for a specific geometry. Using the recently introduced optical path-length spectroscopy, we show that the diffusion model fails to describe wave propagation in the low-order multiple-scattering regime. We propose a new methodology with which to obtain information about the dynamic properties of nondiffusive scattering systems. We use optical path-length spectroscopy to obtain experimentally the path-length distribution of optical waves scattered from dynamic colloids, which are multiply scattering but not in the diffusion limit. The experimental results show that, with this new technique, the accuracy of dynamic measurements is significantly improved in subdiffusive scattering regimes.