Quantitative verification of ab initio self-consistent laser theory

We generalize and test the recent "ab initio" self-consistent (AISC) time-independent semiclassical laser theory. This self-consistent formalism generates all the stationary lasing properties in the multimode regime (frequencies, thresholds, internal and external fields, output power and emission pattern) from simple inputs: the dielectric function of the passive cavity, the atomic transition frequency, and the transverse relaxation time of the lasing transition.We find that the theory gives excellent quantitative agreement with full time-dependent simulations of the Maxwell-Bloch equations after it has been generalized to drop the slowly-varying envelope approximation. The theory is infinite order in the non-linear hole-burning interaction; the widely used third order approximation is shown to fail badly.

Condensation in disordered lasers: theory, 3D+1 simulations, and experiments

The complex processes underlying the generation of a coherent emission from the multiple scattering of photons and wave localization in the presence of structural disorder are still mostly unexplored. Here we show that a single nonlinear Schrödinger equation, playing the role of the Schwalow-Townes law for standard lasers, quantitatively reproduces experimental results and three-dimensional time-domain parallel simulations of a colloidal laser system.