Light diffusion and localization in 3D nonlinear disordered media

Abstract

Using a 3D Finite-Difference Time-Domain parallel code, we report on the linear and nonlinear propagation of light pulses in a disordered assembly of scatterers, whose spatial distribution is generated by a Molecular Dynamics code; refractive index dispersion is also taken into account. We calculate the static and dynamical diffusion constant of light, while considering a pulsed excitation. Our results are in quantitative agreement with reported experiments, also furnishing evidence of a non-exponential decay of the transmitted pulse in the linear regime and in the presence of localized modes. By using an high power excitation, we numerically demonstrate the ``modulational instability random laser'': at high peak input powers energy is transferred to localized states from the input pulse, via third-order nonlinearity and optical parametric amplification, and this process is signed by a power-dependent non-exponential time-decay of the transmitted pulse.

5 pages, 4 figures. Revised version with new figure 4 with localized states

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Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Condensation in disordered lasers: theory, 3D+1 simulations and experiments
• Complexity of waves in nonlinear disordered media
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• The frustrated Brownian motion of nonlocal solitary waves
• Ultrashort pulse propagation and the Anderson localization
• Suppression of light propagation in a medium made of randomly arranged dielectric spheres
• The dependent scattering effect on radiative properties of micro/nanoscale discrete disordered media
• Transverse confinement of waves in 3D random media
• Partial nonlinear reciprocity breaking through ultrafast dynamics in a random photonic medium
• Tuning random lasing in photonic glasses
• Controlling the intensity of light in large areas at the interfaces of a scattering medium
• Signatures of the Anderson localization excited by an optical frequency comb
• Disordered resonant media: Self-induced transparency versus light localization
• Controlling wave-front shape and propagation time with tunable disordered non-Hermitian multilayers
• Pulse propagation in one-dimensional disordered photonic crystals: Interplay of disorder with instantaneous and relaxing nonlinearities
• Disorder-induced light trapping enhanced by pulse collisions in one-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystals