Largest eigenvalue statistics of wavefront shaping in complex scattering media.

Exact random-matrix theory reveals giant fluctuations in wavefront shaping enhancement factors in strongly scattering media, surpassing traditional predictions as input control increases.

• Why it matters: Understanding enhancement factor fluctuations is vital for optimizing wavefront shaping in complex media, yet their full statistical behavior remains largely unexplored, limiting control and application.
• What they did: The study combines experiments, numerical simulations, and exact finite-size random-matrix theory to analyze the distribution of enhancement factors in multi-target focusing across different scattering regimes.
• The result: Findings show that in strongly scattering media, enhancement-factor fluctuations grow significantly beyond theoretical predictions, offering a sensitive probe of long-range mesoscopic correlations and focusing performance.