Linearly polarized emission from random lasers with anisotropically amplifying media

Simulations on three-dimensional random lasers were performed by finite-difference time-domain integration of Maxwell's equations combined with rate-equations providing gain. We investigated the frequency-dependent emission polarization of random lasers in the far-field of the sample and characterized the influence of anisotropic pumping in orthogonal polarizations. Under weak scattering, the polarization states of random lasing modes were random for isotropic pumping and linear under anisotropic pumping. These findings are in accordance with recent experimental observations. A crossover was observed towards very strong scattering, in which the scattering destroys the pump-induced polarization-anisotropy of the random lasing modes and randomizes (scrambles) the mode-polarization. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America