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Physical Review A

Alternate time scale in multimode lasers

Kenju Otsuka, Paul Mandel, S. Bielawski, D. Derozier, P. Glorieux

Published Aug 1, 1992• 118 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We analyze the intensity fluctuation of multimode lasers by extending the linear-response theory of McCumber for single-mode lasers. In the two-mode case, we prove analytically that the rate equations allow for an additional dynamical oscillation frequency associated with the antiphase motion. This explains the self-organized collective behavior of two-mode lasers, i.e., that the total output behaves just like a single-mode laser. The linear stability predicts the scaling law for this time scale, which results quite generally through cross-saturation dynamics of population inversion. Experimental results in two different laser systems confirm these predictions.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.46.1692

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We analyze the intensity fluctuation of multimode lasers by extending the linear-response theory of McCumber for single-mode lasers. In the two-mode case, we prove analytically that the rate equations allow for an additional dynamical oscillation frequency associated with the antiphase motion. This explains the self-organized collective behavior of two-mode lasers, i.e., that the total output behaves just like a single-mode laser. The linear stability predicts the scaling law for this time scale, which results quite generally through cross-saturation dynamics of population inversion. Experimental results in two different laser systems confirm these predictions.
The dynamics of a multimode high-intensity gas laser including some velocity-changing-collision effects is investigated theoretically. Using a spatial Fourier expansion method for the density matrix of the active medium, one obtains the system of equations which contain only the Fourier components of the population inversion. To obtain the approximate solutions in the high-intensity case, the saturation terms due to hole burning and the population-pulsation terms are treated separately. The former are calculated exactly and the result is equivalent to the rate-equation approximation. The latter are treated by the perturbation method. The equations of motion for mode amplitudes have a similar form to those of Lamb's perturbation theory but can be applied to a high-intensity multimode laser. Experimental results of three-mode oscillation of a He-Ne laser are compared with the theory.
We extend the investigation of the long-time behavior of a model consisting of N two-level atoms interacting with a single electromagnetic cavity mode to include interaction with many cavity modes. We show that, as a consequence of the coupling between radiation modes produced by spatial density variations of the population inversion, there is no strictly stationary state possible for multimode behavior. However we obtain a stationary state by neglecting the rapidly oscillating terms. The steady-state population inversion is then a solution of an eigenvalue problem. The eigenvalue determinate is a function of the number of modes and the coupling between modes in addition to the usual dependence on frequencies and relaxation times. We explicitly solve for the unique eigenvalue in special cases. The corresponding eigenvector gives the steady-state mode intensity ratios. The absolute values of the steady-state intensities are determined by the energy conservation equation generalized to include pumping and dissipation. We also calculate the steady-state frequency shifts for each mode. The mode frequency shifts are practically independent of each other and have the same functional form as the single-mode frequency shifts.
We study the dynamics of a laser oscillating on L optical transitions connecting a common upper level and L lower sublevels. Each transition is single mode. The minimal generalization of the rate equations to explain the experimental observations includes the low-frequency coherence dynamics [Europhys. Lett. 45, 307 (1999)]. These equations are studied analytically. We prove that such a laser has a low intensity self-pulsing threshold corresponding to the destabilization of the lowest of the relaxation oscillation frequencies. It also displays antiphased dynamics in the time-periodic regime, resulting in a vanishingly small oscillation amplitude of the total intensity while modal intensities have finite amplitude oscillations. The physical origin of this behavior is found to be the enhancement of stimulated absorption by quantum interference.
We use the semiclassical strong-signal theory of the laser to predict and explain the onset of side-mode buildup in lasers with one oscillating mode. Two general categories are considered: one for which the side modes and the oscillating mode all have the same wavelength and the other for which they have different wavelengths. The treatments include an arbitrary amount of inhomogeneous broadening. Our approach unifies the treatments of the side-mode instabilities presented earlier and extends them to handle standing waves in addition to the previously treated running waves. We write the field and the population matrix elements as Fourier series in the adjacent-mode beat frequency. This approach has been used extensively in both multimode laser theory and saturation spectroscopy. This technique coincides with linear stability analyses used by others, provided that our beat frequency includes a contribution that is proportional to the complex side-mode gain. We give a solution that allows for detuned operation along with its simpler, centrally tuned special case. The connection with saturation spectroscopy clearly reveals that the side-mode instabilities require side-mode gain. For the single-wavelength case, nonlinear anomalous dispersion is also required. The side-mode gain and dispersion result from both inhomogeneous broadening and population pulsations. The lowest instability thresholds occur when both of these mechanisms play a role. The approach can also be used to treat instabilities in optical bistability by substituting the appropriate equation of state for the strong-mode intensity and by changing the sign of the absorption coefficient. In homogeneously broadened, standing-wave lasers, we show that multiwavelength instabilities depend strongly on the position of the medium in the cavity. We illustrate the theory by giving numerical results for the output pulsation frequency and for the instability threshold by using parameters that are appropriate for the He–Xe laser. These results correlate well with experimental observations.
Unstable and bistable behavior has been predicted recently in multimode homogeneously broadened lasers as a function of the detuning between the cavity and the atomic frequencies. As an example of a device for which most required physical conditions for the appearance of this instability are satisfied, we have analyzed the behavior of a low-pressure (10–20 Torr) CO2 laser. The operating parameters (relaxation rates for the population inversion, 104s−1, and for the polarization, 108s−1) restrict the accessible range of theoretically expected phenomena to a stable intensity output without evidence of stable self-pulsing. However, mode–mode competition is responsible for bistability in both the intensity and the operating frequency on varying the detuning parameter. This behavior is confirmed by additional observations of the transient that accompanies the jump between the two stable branches. We have also studied the effect of varying the cavity losses and discovered bistability also in the vicinity of the threshold for laser action. This kind of behavior is not predicted by the plane wave Maxwell-Bloch equations but can be explained in terms of a radial gain profile. Both effects—mode–mode competition and transverse—lead to a variety of bistable behaviors depending on gas pressure and discharge current.
We solve numerically the time-dependent equations of motion for an inhomogeneously broadened single-mode ring laser. As expected from the linear stability analysis, pulsations develop in the output of the laser for appropriate values of the gain parameter. Under resonant conditions, the tendency is for the system to slip from a periodic regime into irregular oscillations; out of resonance, however, periodic oscillations and period-doubling bifurcations are more typical over a large range of gain values. We find that, as the ratio of the population-to-polarization decay rates varies from a value of two (radiative limit) to smaller values, the periodic oscillations turn into a train of well-separated pulses whose peak intensity scales approximately as the square of the atomic density.