Signature and kinetics of stochastic branching of light in disordered active photonic lattices

Abstract

Branched flow is a form of transient wave propagation event that occurs in extreme circumstances. We demonstrate branched propagation of light in a silica-based active disordered photonic lattices. The test-bed proposed here can be completely tailored thus providing us ample scope to study various aspects of the branched flow and explore a better insight of the formation of branches. It is observed that by applying gain above a threshold level, the branches are formed which travel through the lattice resulting in an intense collimated beam that might lead to the development of a new type of nano-laser in the near future.