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Physical Review A

Sub-Poissonian laser

Fritz Haake, Sze Meng Tan, Daniel F. Walls

Published Mar 1, 1990• 23 citations
Publisher

Abstract

By intermittently and periodically pumping N atoms and observing time-scale separation for pumping, emission, and photon leakage from the cavity a laser with up to 50%, sub-Poissonian photon statistics can be realized. We present a stroboscopic period-to-period description of such a laser and clarify how pumping and spontaneous emission can be eliminated and cavity damping be minimized as sources of photon noise.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.41.2808

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Reviews of Modern Physics•Jan 1, 1996•358 citations
By intermittently and periodically pumping N atoms and observing time-scale separation for pumping, emission, and photon leakage from the cavity a laser with up to 50%, sub-Poissonian photon statistics can be realized. We present a stroboscopic period-to-period description of such a laser and clarify how pumping and spontaneous emission can be eliminated and cavity damping be minimized as sources of photon noise.
According to the exact solution of a two-level atomic system interacting with a single-mode field in a cavity and including a pumping mechanism, sub-Poissonian photon statistics can be generated either by regular pumping or by resonance absorption of the lower level. When the atomic lifetime is much smaller than the interaction time (${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathit{a}\mathit{b}}$\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\gg}1), which corresponds to a usual laser system, the sub-Poissonian photon distribution can be obtained only by regular pumping. On the other hand, if the atomic lifetime is comparable with the interaction time (${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{\mathit{a}\mathit{b}}$\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\le}1), the sub-Poissonian photon distribution can be generated by both mechanisms.
The realization of the micromaser prompted theoretical interest in the fundamental problems of laser physics. In particular, it has been shown that the usual quantum theory of the laser can be recovered from the micromaser theory if a Poissonian average with respect to the time intervals between subsequent injections is taken. The problem of general injection statistics has not been fully resolved but, instead, has been circumvented in the following ways. Instead of the time period between successive injections, the number of injected atoms during a fixed time interval was considered as a stochastic variable and was averaged with respect to a general sub-Poissonian distribution. This led to a closed-form master equa tion, but correction terms arise when the effect of cavity damping is significant. In another approach a stroboscopic theory has been developed: The system is observed when a full cycle of pumping, firing, and decay is completed. This assumes observation of the system on a nonuniform time scale. Here we carry out the averaging over the time interval between subsequent injections with sub-Poissonian distribution, suggest a new compact master equation, and exploit some of its consequences. We show that this approach reproduces the previous ones if the cavity damping is negligible. The surprising result of our approach is that altering the pump statistics affects both the gain and the loss part of the laser dynamics.
The author reviews methods for generating sub-Poissonian light and related concepts. This light has energy fluctuations reduced below the level which corresponds to a classical Poissonian process (shot-noise level). After an introduction to the concept of nonclassical light, an overview is given of the main methods of quantum-noise reduction. Sub-Poissonian processes are exemplified in different areas of optics, ranging from single-atom resonance fluorescence to nonlinear optics, laser physics, and cavity quantum electrodynamics. Emphasis is placed on the conceptual foundations, and on developments in laser theory that lead to the possibility, already demonstrated experimentally, of linewidth narrowing and sub-Poissonian light generation in lasers and masers. The sources of quantum noise in these devices are analyzed, and four noise-suppression methods are discussed in detail: regularization of the pumping, suppression of spontaneous-emission noise, nonadiabatic evolution of the atomic variables, and twin-beam generation.