Turbulent Photon Filamentation in Resonant Media

Abstract

Optical turbulence is the term that is used being based on the analogy between hydrodynamic and optical equations. The phenomenon of turbulent photon filamentation occurs in lasers and other active optical media at high Fresnel numbers. A description of this phenomenon is suggested. The solutions to evolution equations are presented in the form of a bunch of filaments chaotically distributed in space and having different radii. The probability distribution of patterns is defined characterizing the probabilistic weight of different filaments. The most probable filament radius and filament number are found, being in good agreement with experiment.