From the Introduction:
What is the “symbolic” or “frivolous” meaning of localisation in condensed matter physics? In quantum mechanics of the solid state this invariably refers to localisation induced by disorder. Consequently this particular form of localisation is a property of some random system. If there is something workers in optics hate and condensed matter physicists love, it is randomness. Condensed matter physicists have given up the hope of ever preparing the perfect crystal. So why not turn a disaster into a success story and make the study of disorder the story of your life. Believe it or not it is in these “dirty” materials that some absolutely beautiful properties, sometimes promoted to the status of “paradigms” have emerged. “Localisation of electrons in a disordered system”[1] is one of them. Many of these novel phenomena in random media have been formulated in the anguage of condensed-matter physics, but the basic concepts can easily be rephrased using optical terminology: the effects are all connected to the importance of interference in multiple scattering of waves. This statement immediately brings up the question whether these findings might also apply to other wave equations.

[Popularizing paper, well-suited to novices in the field. Paper solicited by the International Commission for Optics, see also: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Current-Trends-Optics-Optical-Engineering/dp/0122007204]

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL21120885M/Current_trends_in_optics

A. Lagendijk

1994

01/1994

Current Trends in Optics, edited by J.C. Dainty (Academic, London, 1994)

51-68

978-0122007200