  Understanding light-matter interaction in disordered photonic media allows
people to manipulate light scattering and achieve exciting applications using
seemingly scrambled media. As the concentration of scattering particles rises,
they are inclined to step into near fields of each other in deep subwavelength
scale. The fundamental physics involving the interplay between disorder and
near-field interaction (NFI) is still not fully understood. We theoretically
examine the role of NFI by analyzing the underlying multiple scattering
mechanism. We find NFI leads to a stronger collective behavior involving more
particles and widens the photonic pseudo-bandgap of disordered media. It also
excites more weakly decayed longitudinal modes and results in higher local
density of states. By introducing a sticky short-range order, we demonstrate
the possibility of enhancing off-momentum-shell NFI of multiple scattering
process. Our results have profound implications in understanding and harnessing
nanoscale light-matter interaction for novel disordered photonic devices.
