Statistical regimes of random laser fluctuations

Lepri, Stefano and Cavalieri, Stefano and Oppo, Gian-Luca and Wiersma, Diederik S. (2007) Statistical regimes of random laser fluctuations. Physical Review A, 75 (6). 063820. ISSN 1050-2947 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.75.063820)

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Abstract

Statistical fluctuations of the light emitted from amplifying random media are studied theoretically and numerically. The characteristic scales of the diffusive motion of light lead to Gaussian or power-law (Lévy) distributed fluctuations depending on external control parameters. In the Lévy regime, the output pulse is highly irregular leading to huge deviations from a mean-field description. Monte Carlo simulations of a simplified model which includes the population of the medium demonstrate the two statistical regimes and provide a comparison with dynamical rate equations. Different statistics of the fluctuations helps to explain recent experimental observations reported in the literature.