English

Glassy behavior of light in random lasers

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks 2016-08-31 v2 Other Condensed Matter Statistical Mechanics Chaotic Dynamics Optics

Abstract

A theoretical analysis [Angelani et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 065702 (2006)] predicts glassy behaviour of light in a nonlinear random medium. This implies slow dynamics related to the presence of many metastable states. We consider very general equations (that also apply to other systems, like Bose-Condensed gases) describing light in a disordered non-linear medium and through some approximations we relate them to a mean-field spin-glass-like model. The model is solved by the replica method, and replica-symmetry breaking phase transition is predicted. The transition describes a mode-locking process in which the phases of the modes are locked to random (history and sample-dependent) values. The results are based on very general theory, and embrace a variety of physical phenomena.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0604242,
  title  = {Glassy behavior of light in random lasers},
  author = {Luca Angelani and Claudio Conti and Giancarlo Ruocco and Francesco Zamponi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0604242},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

21 pages, 3 figures. Revised and enlarged version. To be published in Physical Review B

R2 v1 2026-07-22T11:31:01.239Z