Universal intensity statistics in a chaotic reverberation chamber to refine the criterion of statistical field uniformity

International audienceThis article presents a study of the intensity statistics of the electromagnetic response in a chaotic reverberation chamber (RC) in the presence of losses. Through an experimental investigation, intensity statistics of the response in a conventional mode-stirred RC are compared with those in a chaotic RC in the neighborhood of the Lowest Useable Frequency. The present work illustrates how the universal statistical properties of the field in an actual chaotic RC can ensure the validity of the standard criterion proposed to evaluate the uniformity of the field distribution. In particular, through a theoretical approach based on the random matrix theory applied to open chaotic systems, we find that the modal overlap seems to be the only relevant parameter of the corresponding intensity distribution