%0 Journal Article
%T Turbulent Intermittency in a Random Fiber Laser
%J Atoms | An Open Access Journal from MDPI
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.3390/atoms7020043
%X In fluid turbulence, intermittency is the emergence of non-Gaussian tails in the distribution of velocity increments in small space and/or time scales. Intermittence is thus expected to gradually disappear as one moves from small to large scales. Here we study the turbulent-like intermittency effect experimentally observed in the distribution of intensity fluctuations in a disordered continuous-wave-pumped erbium-doped-based random fiber laser with specially-designed random fiber Bragg gratings. The intermittency effect is investigated as a crossover in the distribution of intensity increments from a heavy-tailed distribution (for short time scales), to a Gaussian distribution (for large time scales). The results are theoretically supported by a hierarchical stochastic model that incorporates KolmogorovĄ¯s theory of turbulence. In particular, the discrete version of the hierachical model allows a general direct interpretation of the number of relevant scales in the photonic hierarchy as the order of the transitions induced by the non-linearities in the medium. Our results thus provide further statistical evidence for the interpretation of the turbulence-like emission previously observed in this system. View Full-Tex
%U https://www.mdpi.com/2218-2004/7/2/43