Transmission fluctuations in chaotic microwave billiards with and without time-reversal symmetry

Transmission fluctuations have been studied in a microwave billiard in dependence to the number of attached wave guides on its entrance and exit. To investigate the influence of breaking time-reversal symmetry, ferrite cylinders were introduced into the billiard. The obtained transmission intensity distributions are compared with predictions from the random matrix theory. Because of the strong absorption caused by the ferrites, the existing statistical scattering theories had to be modified, by incorporating a number of additional absorbing scattering channels.