Paper detail

General phase-diagram of multimodal ordered and disordered lasers in closed and open cavities

We present a unified approach to the theory of multimodal laser cavities including a variable amount of structural disorder. A general mean-field theory is studied for waves in media with variable non-linearity and randomness. Phase diagrams are reported in terms of optical power, degree of disorder and degree of non-linearity, tuning between closed and open cavity scenario's. In the thermodynamic limit of infinitely many modes the theory predicts four distinct regimes: a continuous wave behavior for low power, a standard mode-locking laser regime for high power and weak disorder, a random laser for high pumped power and large disorder and an intermediate regime of phase locking occurring in presence of disorder below the lasing threshold.