Prabhakar Pradhan 's work on Mirrorless Random Laser

Mirrorless Coherent Random Lasers
(Pradhan and Kumar's proposal for new type of lasers)

There are two important and well known effects based on coherent scattering of waves in condensed matter:
(1)Coherent Back Scattering (CBS) is responsible for disorder induced localization (i.e. Anderson localization) in a disordered medium; and
(2) Coherent Amplification (CA) is responsible for photons/light amplification (stimulated) in an amplifying medium (e.g. laser, maser).
These two effects have been studied independently in great details.
We have proposed that the combination of the above two coherent phenomenas [(1) CBS , and (2) CA ] brings an interesting aspect of light amplification using localization and showed possibility of "Mirrorless Random Laser" in a coherently amplifying disordered medium. Coherent nature of the amplification does not affect the coherent back scattering which is responsible for localization. Now light is more amplified in interplay between localization and amplification, and the system can show lasing action (by non resonant feed back by localization) where localization gives the necessary confinement of a virtual high Q cavity (whose lenght is order of localization lenght) for the lasing action. The proposal has been theoretically supported (by differnt model calculations), verified and extended by several groups, and most recent experiments by Hui Cao's group at Northwestern University strongly support our proposal/prediction.

Photo of Dr. Prabhakar Pradhan

The paper where we first show the possibility of mirrorless laser using localization

"Localization of light in coherently amplifying random media",
Prabhakar Pradhan, N. Kumar, Phys. Rev. B50, 9644(1994)  [pdf] .
See for details, "Enhancement of coherent light amplification using Anderson localization",
Prabhakar Pradhan, cond-mat/9807312   [pdf].

Recent Highlights/Reviews on Our Work on Mirroless Lasers

Read a recent review on "Random Lasers" where our work has been discussed and highlighted.
D. S. Wiersma, "The physics and applications of random lasers," Nature Physics 4, 359 (2008).

A nice popular article on "Mirrorless Lasing Action" which describes : coherent light amplification with coherent feedback due to Anderson localization of light
"Mirrorless lasing in random amplifying media", by Anantha Ramakrishnan, Bulletin of the Indian Laser Association, Vol.10, No.4, Oct 1999

Partial list of papers which extended our idea/proposal further (arbitrary order)

Other Physical Review Articles That Cite This One:

  1. Light amplification and localization in random amplifying layered media: Statistics from physical solutions
    C.-K. Nam and Z.-Q. Zhang
    Phys. Rev. B 66, 073101 (2002)
  2. Microscopic versus mesoscopic local density of states in one-dimensional localization
    H. Schomerus, M. Titov, P. W. Brouwer, and C. W. J. Beenakker
    Phys. Rev. B 65, 121101 (2002)
  3. Localized random lasing modes and a path for observing localization
    X. Jiang and C. M. Soukoulis
    Phys. Rev. E 65, 025601 (2002)
  4. Add to article collection Dynamics of a Random Laser above Threshold
    G. van Soest, F. J. Poelwijk, R. Sprik, and A. Lagendijk
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1522 (2001)
  5. Time Dependent Theory for Random Lasers
    X. Jiang and C. M. Soukoulis
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 70 (2000)  [View PDF (114 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  6. Localization in a random phase-conjugating medium
    M. Blaauboer
    Phys. Rev. A 62, 041804 (2000)  [View PDF (79 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  7. Modeling of stochastic absorption in a random medium
    S. K. Joshi, D. Sahoo, and A. M. Jayannavar
    Phys. Rev. B 62, 880 (2000)  [View PDF (112 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  9. Reflection of light from a random amplifying medium with disorder in the complex refractive index: Statistics of fluctuations
    S. A. Ramakrishna, E. K. Das, G. V. Vijayagovindan, and N. Kumar
    Phys. Rev. B 62, 256 (2000)  [View PDF (92 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  10. Scattering of light from an amplifying medium bounded by a randomly rough surface
    A. V. Tutov, A. A. Maradudin, T. A. Leskova, A. P. Mayer, and J. A. Sánchez-Gil
    Phys. Rev. B 60, 12692 (1999)  [View PDF (205 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  11. Transmission and reflection in a perfectly amplifying and absorbing medium
    P. K. Datta
    Phys. Rev. B 59, 10980 (1999)  [View PDF (96 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  12. Symmetry between absorption and amplification in disordered media
    X. Jiang, Q. Li, and C. M. Soukoulis
    Phys. Rev. B 59, R9007 (1999)  [View PDF (125 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  13. Transmission and reflection studies of periodic and random systems with gain
    X. Jiang and C. M. Soukoulis
    Phys. Rev. B 59, 6159 (1999)  [View PDF (210 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  14. Reflection coefficient and localization length of waves in one-dimensional random media
    K. Kim
    Phys. Rev. B 58, 6153 (1998)  [View PDF (177 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  15. Wigner delay time of a random passive or active medium
    S. K. Joshi, A. K. Gupta, and A. M. Jayannavar
    Phys. Rev. B 58, 1092 (1998)  [View PDF (91 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  16. Lasing threshold and mode competition in chaotic cavities
    T. Sh. Misirpashaev and C. W. J. Beenakker
    Phys. Rev. A 57, 2041 (1998)  [View PDF (149 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  17. Transmission through a many-channel random waveguide with absorption
    P. W. Brouwer
    Phys. Rev. B 57, 10526 (1998)  [View PDF (264 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  18. Comparison between two models of dephasing in mesoscopic systems
    T. P. Pareek, S. K. Joshi, and A. M. Jayannavar
    Phys. Rev. B 57, 8809 (1998)  [View PDF (66 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  19. Transmission and reflection from a disordered lasing medium
    S. K. Joshi and A. M. Jayannavar
    Phys. Rev. B 56, 12038 (1997)  [View PDF (117 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  20. Light amplification and absorption in a random medium
    J. Heinrichs
    Phys. Rev. B 56, 8674 (1997)  [View PDF (204 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  21. Statistical properties of the reflectance and transmittance of an amplifying random medium
    V. Freilikher, M. Pustilnik, and I. Yurkevich
    Phys. Rev. B 56, 5974 (1997)  [View PDF (128 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]

  22. W. Deng, D. S. Wiersma, and Z.-Q. Zhang
    Phys. Rev. B 56, 178 (1997)  [View     PDF (124 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  23. Amplification and localization behaviors of obliquely incident light in randomly layered media
    W. Deng and Z. Zhang
    Phys. Rev. B 55, 14230 (1997)  [View PDF (136 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  24. Correlations in transmission of light through a disordered amplifying medium
    A. A. Burkov and A. Yu. Zyuzin
    Phys. Rev. B 55, 5736 (1997)  [View PDF (140 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  25. Random-matrix theory of quantum transport
    C. W. J. Beenakker
    Rev. Mod. Phys. 69, 731 (1997)  [View PDF (2043 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]
  26. Theory of lasing in a multiple-scattering medium
    S. John and G. Pang
    Phys. Rev. A 54, 3642 (1996)  [View PDF (239 kB), or   [Buy this Article]]

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