The research described in this proposal is concerned with the localization of classical waves (mostly light) in random media. The observation of the light scattering from a random medium provides a convenient tool for investigating localization effects. The vector nature of light waves have an important effect on localization and lead to interesting observable effects. The effects of absorption, lower dimensionality, geometric effects and the analog of spin orbit scattering on coherent backscattering are being investigated. The existence of a mobility edge in the light problem is of interest. The intensity fluctuations and its correlation functions are under investigation and give interesting information about the scattering and interference of waves in random media. Another system being investigated is that of semiclassical (non- degenerate) electrons at low temperatures in two dimensions. The conductance and magnetoconductance of this system also shows interesting localization effects.
