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Laser physics

The smallest random laser

Nature volume 406, pages 133–135 (2000)Cite this article

Smaller laser sources could be used in all-optical devices or for secret marking of documents. A special type of microlaser that uses disordered materials to create laser light may provide a simple and cheap option.

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Figure 1: Comparison between a regular laser and a ‘random laser’.
Figure 2: Model of an amplifying disordered material used to build a ‘random laser’.

DIEDERIK WIERSMA

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  1. European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy and the Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia , Largo E. Fermi 2, Florence , 50125, Italy

    Diederik Wiersma

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Correspondence to Diederik Wiersma.

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Wiersma, D. The smallest random laser. Nature 406, 133–135 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35018184

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