Abstract:

Random lasers are photonic sources of coherent emission which differs from conventional laser because the optical feedback mechanism is provided by a scattering medium rather than by conventional mirrors. The scattering medium can be formed by nanoparticles or by a change in the host material refractive index. The gain medium can be separate or can be itself the scatter. The development of random lasers and random fiber lasers has grown fantastically over the last 25 years, and in these two lectures (50 minutes each) I shall review the basics and applications of random lasers and random fiber lasers, as detailed below:

L1 - Basics and recent developments in Random Lasers (RL) and Random Fiber Lasers (RFL)

Starting from Lethokhov’s idea in the early 60’s, I shall review the main theoretical aspects of RL. Then, I will describe the experimental developments since the seminal work by Lawandy and co-workers in 1994, with nanocomposite TiO2+dye colloid, followed by polymer based RL, plasmonically enhanced RL, electrically pumped RL, cold atoms RL, metamaterials based RL, Random Fiber Lasers, flexible RL, Raman RL, and biological RL.

L2 – Applications of RL and RFL: From life science to complex systems

Random Lasers and Random Fiber Lasers have already found a myriad of applications. Bulk RL can be used as sources of optical imaging or as diagnostic tool for skin cancer. They can also be used as sensors.  RFL can also be used as sources of optical imaging, sensors and optical amplifiers. Both types of random lasers, bulk and fiber, have also been exploited as photonic platform to study complex physics, from Lévy statistics to extreme events to turbulence. I shall review all these aspects in the second lecture.

Bio：

Anderson S. L. Gomes received his PhD degree in Laser Physics from University of London (1982); He is a professor of Physics Department of UFPE since 1990. His scientific activities are in the area Laser applications in nano and biophotonics, nonlinear optics communications in which he is a co-author of over 220 scientific papers and has suoervised more than 35 Master and PhD students. He is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, where he has been the Chair of the International Council (2011-2012). He is also the member of Brazilian Physical Society, IEEE and SPIE. He acted in many higher education Brazilian scientific policy communities, and coordinated the area of Physics and Astronomy at CAPES (Brazilian Education Agency, 2008-2010). He is a former member of Physics Council at CNPq (Brazilian Science Agency). He has served as referee for many international journals in his area of knowledge, and was Associate Editor of Advance in Optics and Photonics (OSA). He has been the Chair of several national and international conference in Brazil. In 2010, he was awarded in admitted in the National Order of the Scientific Merit, Classe Comendador in the area of Physical science (Decree of 27th December 2010). He presently holds research fellowship IA at CNPq. In 2010, he acted as Pernambuco State Secretary of a Science, Technology and Environment (April to December, 2010), and was the state Secretary of Education of Pernambuco, from January 2011 to December 2012. He is an academician of Brazilian Academy of Science