Nonlinear effects and photonic phase transitions in Nd3+-doped nanocrystal-based random lasers

Abstract

The interplay between gain and scattering of light propagating in disordered media allows operation of random lasers (RLs)—lasers without conventional optical cavities. In the present paper, we review our recent contributions in this area, which include the demonstration of self-second-harmonic and self-sum-frequency generation, the characterization of Lévy’s statistics of the output intensity fluctuations, and replica symmetry breaking (analogue to the spin-glass phase transition) by RLs based on nanocrystals containing trivalent neodymium ions.