Selective Excitation of Localized Modes in Active Random Media

TLDR

Laser action in the Anderson localization regime is studied by coupling Maxwell’s equations with four‑level atomic rate equations in a strongly scattering medium. The authors aim to demonstrate that local pumping can selectively excite individual localized modes. The method couples Maxwell’s equations to four‑level atomic rate equations and employs local pumping to target specific localized modes. Localized modes of the passive medium remain unchanged by gain and serve as resonant microcavities; the laser spectrum varies with pump location, consistent with recent semiconductor powder experiments. Citation: Rev.

Abstract

Laser action in the regime of Anderson localization is investigated by coupling Maxwell's equations in a strongly scattering medium with the rate equations of a four-level atomic system. We find that the localized modes of the passive medium are not modified by the presence of gain and serve as resonant microcavities of the random laser. The spectrum of laser emission is shown to depend on the location of the external pump. These results are similar to the recent experimental observations in semiconductor powder [Cao et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2278 (1999)]. We show that local pumping of the system allows selective excitation of individual localized modes.