Recent advances in fundamentals and applications of random fiber lasers

TLDR

Random fiber lasers merge the low‑cost, simple fabrication of random lasers with the high‑performance, directional, efficient characteristics of conventional fiber lasers, offering low coherence for speckle‑free imaging and evolving since 2010 through Rayleigh scattering and distributed Raman gain to become a practical photonic device exploiting optical disorder. The authors aim to review recent advances in random fiber lasers, covering high‑power and high‑efficiency generation, spectral and statistical properties, nonlinear kinetic theory, and emerging applications in telecommunications and distributed sensing. They provide a comprehensive overview of these advances, summarizing the high‑power/high‑efficiency generation, spectral and statistical characteristics, nonlinear kinetic theory, and emerging telecom and sensing applications.

Abstract

Random fiber lasers blend together attractive features of traditional random lasers, such as low cost and simplicity of fabrication, with high-performance characteristics of conventional fiber lasers, such as good directionality and high efficiency. Low coherence of random lasers is important for speckle-free imaging applications. The random fiber laser with distributed feedback proposed in 2010 led to a quickly developing class of light sources that utilize inherent optical fiber disorder in the form of the Rayleigh scattering and distributed Raman gain. The random fiber laser is an interesting and practically important example of a photonic device based on exploitation of optical medium disorder. We provide an overview of recent advances in this field, including high-power and high-efficiency generation, spectral and statistical properties of random fiber lasers, nonlinear kinetic theory of such systems, and emerging applications in telecommunications and distributed sensing.