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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Aspects of the degenerate two-photon laser

S∅ren Bay, M. Elk, P. Lambropoulos

Published Dec 28, 1995• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper presents new results on aspects of the two-photon laser. A semiclassical investigation of threshold behaviour reveals that the atom-field coupling is already so strong at threshold that a non-perturbative treatment of the dynamics is necessary. A master equation is derived on the basis of an effective Hamiltonian generalized in that it includes the effect of an overall two-photon detuning, the effect of ionization of the upper atomic level and the effect of dynamic Stark shifts. From the diagonal elements of the master equation, a Fokker-Planck equation is obtained and shown to yield a general analytical expression for the photon distribution which is found to simplify considerably in special cases. The agreement with the result obtained through numerical solution of the master equation itself is very good. It is further shown that a detuning from two-photon resonance and a significant Stark shift lead to sub-Poissonian statistics. Finally, time-dependent solutions for the photon distribution under an injected coherent state are presented.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/28/24/019

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This paper presents new results on aspects of the two-photon laser. A semiclassical investigation of threshold behaviour reveals that the atom-field coupling is already so strong at threshold that a non-perturbative treatment of the dynamics is necessary. A master equation is derived on the basis of an effective Hamiltonian generalized in that it includes the effect of an overall two-photon detuning, the effect of ionization of the upper atomic level and the effect of dynamic Stark shifts. From the diagonal elements of the master equation, a Fokker-Planck equation is obtained and shown to yield a general analytical expression for the photon distribution which is found to simplify considerably in special cases. The agreement with the result obtained through numerical solution of the master equation itself is very good. It is further shown that a detuning from two-photon resonance and a significant Stark shift lead to sub-Poissonian statistics. Finally, time-dependent solutions for the photon distribution under an injected coherent state are presented.
We derive the equation of motion for the field density matrix of the degenerate two-photon laser under conditions of two-photon resonance starting from the full microscopic Hamiltonian. Our results are compared with the corresponding quantities obtained from the standard effective Hamiltonian. As we have shown for the nondegenerate case, the full diagonal density-matrix equations tend to the effective Hamiltonian density-matrix equations in an appropriate limit, but the equations of motion for the off-diagonal elements do not coincide. The equations obtained using a more accurate form of the effective Hamiltonian, in which Stark shifts are included, do agree. In this paper we concentrate on the photon-number distribution and the nature of the phase transition that takes place in the neighborhood of the two-photon lasing transition threshold. We determine the steady-state mean photon numbers and consider the stability of the solutions. A solution is found where the mean photon number is zero, but this is found to be a stable solution only for sufficiently weak pumping, whereas in the standard effective Hamiltonian approach it is always stable. As the pumping strength is increased, a range of detunings is reached in which there are two stable solutions. The amplitude of the zero-photon peak diminishes very rapidly as the pumping strength increases. Finally, for sufficiently large detunings, a single, stable, steady-state solution is obtained. The nature of the phase transition is illustrated by presenting plots of the photon-number distribution against detuning and pumping rate. The photon-number fluctuations about the mean are also discussed.
A quantum theory of a two-photon laser is developed by making use of the antinormal-ordering Q function. Starting from the microscopic atom-field interaction Hamiltonian for cascade three-level atoms and including saturable absorbers, we first present a master equation for the field-density operator, and then transform the master equation into a Fokker-Planck equation for the Q function. The Q-function approach enables us to study the two-photon laser analytically, obtaining simple expressions for nonlinear gain, mean photon number, frequency pulling, natural linewidth, and photon-number variance in a unified method. We find that the field in a two-photon laser will build up from a vacuum without triggering if its linear gain is larger than the cavity loss. Also hysteresis can occur in the two-photon laser even without triggering. With an overall two-photon resonance, the normalized photon-number variance approaches a common value 11/8 well above ``threshold,'' independent of the one-photon detuning. We compare these results with previous results obtained from an effective interaction Hamiltonian. We find that the domain of validity of the effective Hamiltonian for the photon-number variance is much smaller than that for the mean photon number. Well above ``threshold'' the effective Hamiltonian overestimates both the natural linewidth and the photon-number variance.
The authors develop the theory of the degenerate and nondegenerate two-photon micromaser using the full, three-level Hamiltonian under conditions of overall two-photon resonance. Subject to this condition, their results are valid for arbitrary one-photon detunings, but they consider in particular the large detuning and zero detuning limits, where some simplification is possible. For the case of zero detuning, they obtain semianalytic solutions, and find that, depending upon the interaction time, the system lases as either a single-mode or a two-mode system. They have compared their results with the degenerate two-photon micromaser, and find qualitative differences. Their results are valid for arbitrary one-photon detunings, provided the interaction times are not too long. The solution to the Fokker-Planck equation is found using a detailed balance, linearization procedure, and the photon statistics is investigated. Markedly sub-Poissonian behaviour is possible under certain conditions. They find that the behaviour in the zero detuning, nondegenerate situation is quite distinct to that of all other cases.
We have solved a master equation to obtain the diagonal elements of the density matrix for laser light. The master equation represents a generalization of a master equation derived earlier for a single radiation mode interacting with NNN stationary two-level atoms. The generalization takes into account the pumping scheme which characterizes a three-level laser. For positive temperatures and a lossless cavity, the equilibrium solution of the master equation gives the correct statistical-mechanical description of the atoms and radiation. For negative temperatures, the distribution function for the number of photons in the mode is either exponential or peaked, depending on whether the laser is operating below or above threshold. The calculated intensity fluctuations are in good agreement with semiclassical results for lasers operating slightly above threshold.
We have solved a master equation to obtain the diagonal elements of the density matrix for laser light. The master equation represents a generalization of a master equation derived earlier for a single radiation mode interacting with NNN stationary two-level atoms. The generalization takes into account the pumping scheme which characterizes a three-level laser. For positive temperatures and a lossless cavity, the equilibrium solution of the master equation gives the correct statistical-mechanical description of the atoms and radiation. For negative temperatures, the distribution function for the number of photons in the mode is either exponential or peaked, depending on whether the laser is operating below or above threshold. The calculated intensity fluctuations are in good agreement with semiclassical results for lasers operating slightly above threshold.
Starting from the master equation for density operator of the atoms and the field mode and applying the operator method of adiabatic elimination of the atomio variables developed by Haake and Lewenstein, we derived the Fokker-Planck Equation for Wigner function of the lightfield and its steady-state solution. With a Gaussian approximation to the solution, analytical and numerical results on the photon statistics for various pumping strengths are obtained. Comparisons with previous works are made.