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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Transverse effects and noise in optical instabilities

L. A. Lugiato, R. J. Horowicz, G. Strini, Lorenzo M. Narducci

Published Dec 18, 1984• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We analyse the simplest model that describes the dynamics of a two-level, optically bistable system in a ring cavity, and incorporates a Gaussian radial variation of the electric field. We find that the most favourable situation to achieve self-pulsing instabilities is that of atomic and cavity detunings with opposite sign. The results are compared with those of plane-wave theory. We show that noise plays a primary role at the onset of self-oscillatory instabilities, and that its effects are governed by an equation formally identical to the Risken equation for the laser.

DOI
10.1098/rsta.1984.0109

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In this paper we analyze the steady-state and stability properties of bistable optical systems, lasers with an injected signal, and ordinary free-running lasers. The starting point of our study is a unified model of a ring cavity containing a finite-size cylindrical sample of homogeneously broadened two-level atoms, and capable of supporting a single field mode with a Gaussian transverse profile. After solving the equations of motion in the steady state, we carry out a linear stability analysis of the stationary solutions, identify the domains of unstable operation of each of the three systems, and compare in detail the results of this work with those of earlier plane-wave uniform-field calculations. In the case of the laser with an injected signal, we find a significant enhancement of the instability domain relative to the plane-wave limit. A similar conclusion holds for mixed absorptive and dispersive optical bistability, although the enhancement of the domain of instability is less pronounced. Unstable behavior is predicted to occur for experimentally accessible values of the bistability parameter, and to be favored by the absence of bistability and by the selection of atomic and cavity detunings having opposite signs. This configuration ensures that the instability will be responsible for the emergence of undamped output pulsations of the type that will make the bistable system behave as an optical clock.

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Abstract We analyse the simplest model that describes the dynamics of a two-level, optically bistable system in a ring cavity, and incorporates a Gaussian radial variation of the electric field. We find that the most favourable situation to achieve self-pulsing instabilities is that of atomic and cavity detunings with opposite sign. The results are compared with those of plane-wave theory. We show that noise plays a primary role at the onset of self-oscillatory instabilities, and that its effects are governed by an equation formally identical to the Risken equation for the laser.
In this paper we analyze the steady-state and stability properties of bistable optical systems, lasers with an injected signal, and ordinary free-running lasers. The starting point of our study is a unified model of a ring cavity containing a finite-size cylindrical sample of homogeneously broadened two-level atoms, and capable of supporting a single field mode with a Gaussian transverse profile. After solving the equations of motion in the steady state, we carry out a linear stability analysis of the stationary solutions, identify the domains of unstable operation of each of the three systems, and compare in detail the results of this work with those of earlier plane-wave uniform-field calculations. In the case of the laser with an injected signal, we find a significant enhancement of the instability domain relative to the plane-wave limit. A similar conclusion holds for mixed absorptive and dispersive optical bistability, although the enhancement of the domain of instability is less pronounced. Unstable behavior is predicted to occur for experimentally accessible values of the bistability parameter, and to be favored by the absence of bistability and by the selection of atomic and cavity detunings having opposite signs. This configuration ensures that the instability will be responsible for the emergence of undamped output pulsations of the type that will make the bistable system behave as an optical clock.
In 1966 Haken and Risken, Schmid and Weidlich(1) showed that under proper conditions the stationary state of a homogenously broadened, single mode ring laser can become unstable. The instability requires a "bad cavity" situation, i.e. the cavity damping constant must be larger than the atomic decay rates. Later, Haken(2) proved that such an instability coincides with the well known Lorenz instability, which leads to chaotic behaviour. On the other hand, Risken and Nummedal and independently Graham and Haken(3) analyzed the homogeneously broadened ring laser taking into account all the longitudinal cavity modes. They showed that under appropriate conditions in the good cavity case some cavity modes, different from the one resonant with the atomic system, can become unstable. In this case, one has the formation of a pulse that travels in the cavity. In 1978, Bonifacio and Lugiato(4) showed that a similar self-pulsing behaviour in good cavity conditions occurs in optical bistability in a ring cavity filled with a homogeneously broadened atomic sample.
Of the Lorenz-type instabilities expected in optical systems, the single-mode instability in optical bistability has been the subject of detailed theoretical and experimental work by our groups. A treatment employing the plane-wave and mean-field limits of the Maxwell-Bloch equations predicts a rich variety of higher-order bifurcations including period doublings and intermittency.1 An extension of this work to include the transverse dependence of the intracavity field reveals no significant qualitative differences between the plane-wave theory and the Gaussian beam theory as regards the stability boundaries obtained from a linearized analysis.2 The instability persists in the presence of a Gaussian transverse profile and the boundaries are not radically modified compared with those obtained from the plane-wave theory. However, numerical integration of the Maxwell-Bloch equations in the single transverse mode approximation does not show the wealth of higher-order dynamic states present in the plane-wave case. An experimental investigation of optical bistability for two-level atoms in a single transverse, single longitudinal mode cavity exhibits limit cycle oscillation with stability boundaries that agree well with the boundaries obtained from the work in Ref. 2. However, for the range of values C < 300, |Δ| < 5, |θ| < 50, X ~ 102, the experimental results do not show the diversity of higher dynamic states expected from the plane-wave theory, in agreement with our numerical results. In addition the measurements support the existence of a single transverse mode oscillation. The sum of our theoretical and experimental work provides a quantitative statement for the role of the transverse effects in optical instabilities.
We compare theoretical predictions and experimental data for the multimode instability of optical bistability, which arises from the coherent dynamics of a system of two-level molecules contained in an optical cavity and driven by an external stationary laser field. Considerable insight into this phenomenon is provided by two ``rules of thumb'' that govern the behavior of the self-pulsing frequency, and establish its relation with the Rabi frequency of the intracavity field. We describe in detail the experimental apparatus and the main features of the experimental findings. The theoretical results are based on the Maxwell-Bloch equations for a ring cavity in the plane-wave approximation. Despite the crudeness of this model, the numerical data display a satisfactory qualitative agreement with the experimental results. Additional period-doubling and chaotic phenomena, predicted by the theory and not observed in the experiment, are presumably washed out by the longitudinal and radial variation of the electric field in the cavity.
The steady state behaviour of a bistable system of a homogeneously/inhomogeneously broadened two-level atomic medium in contact with a squeezed vacuum field and placed in a ring cavity driven by a coherent field is analysed within the mean field limit where the transverse effect of the radiation field is taken into account within the single-transverse-mode model. Effects on the input–output relation and the critical value of the cooperative parameter C crit are examined and compared with these results in the plane wave approximation. The 'cooperative switching effect' between the output states of the system due to variation of the cooperative parameter C is also investigated. Linear stability analysis for the model Maxwell–Bloch equations is presented in the homogeneously broadened case.