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Physical Review Letters

Exact Photocount Distributions for Lasers Near Threshold

M. Lax, M. Zwanziger

Published Apr 27, 1970• 20 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Photocount fluctuation problems, treated previously for Gaussian statistics only, or in the limit of short measurement times, have been extended to arbitrary times (compared with the intensity correlation time) and to general Markoffian processes. In particular, we calculate the distribution function of the time-integrated light intensity for a laser operated near threshold.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.24.937

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Exact Photocount Statistics: Lasers near Threshold

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A previously constructed laser model with quantum (noncommuting) noise sources was shown to lead near threshold to a quantum rotating-wave Van der Pol oscillator. A full dynamical correspondence between quantum and classical random processes allows one to compute the average of any time-ordered, normal-ordered operator function by averaging the associated function of classical random variables. Numerical calculations for the associated classical Van der Pol oscillator of the steady-state distribution, the total intensity fluctuations, and the linewidth versus operating point were amply confirmed experimentally. Measurements (and calculations) of higher than two-time correlations were sparse and contradictory. Photocount distributions, at times short compared to the intensity correlation time, confirm only the steady state of the laser. Photocount distributions at intermediate and longer times are difficult to compute because they involve multitime correlations of high ($\ensuremath{\infty}$) order. By providing an exact solution for photocount distributions and their moments for all times, we expected to stimulate measurements near threshold which would provide an adequate test of the Van der Pol laser model. Comparison of the results reported here with recent photocount experiments of Meltzer, Davis, and Mandel and of Jakeman, Oliver, and Pike provides gratifying agreement and confirmation of our statistical understanding of laser fluctuations near threshold.

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Physical Review•Oct 25, 1969•18 citations
Photocount fluctuation problems, treated previously for Gaussian statistics only, or in the limit of short measurement times, have been extended to arbitrary times (compared with the intensity correlation time) and to general Markoffian processes. In particular, we calculate the distribution function of the time-integrated light intensity for a laser operated near threshold.
A previously constructed laser model with quantum (noncommuting) noise sources was shown to lead near threshold to a quantum rotating-wave Van der Pol oscillator. A full dynamical correspondence between quantum and classical random processes allows one to compute the average of any time-ordered, normal-ordered operator function by averaging the associated function of classical random variables. Numerical calculations for the associated classical Van der Pol oscillator of the steady-state distribution, the total intensity fluctuations, and the linewidth versus operating point were amply confirmed experimentally. Measurements (and calculations) of higher than two-time correlations were sparse and contradictory. Photocount distributions, at times short compared to the intensity correlation time, confirm only the steady state of the laser. Photocount distributions at intermediate and longer times are difficult to compute because they involve multitime correlations of high ($\ensuremath{\infty}$) order. By providing an exact solution for photocount distributions and their moments for all times, we expected to stimulate measurements near threshold which would provide an adequate test of the Van der Pol laser model. Comparison of the results reported here with recent photocount experiments of Meltzer, Davis, and Mandel and of Jakeman, Oliver, and Pike provides gratifying agreement and confirmation of our statistical understanding of laser fluctuations near threshold.
The transient phase-independent solutions of the laser Fokker-Planck equation are analyzed for a short range of time following the moment of the switching on of the oscillations. The evolution of the laser light in time is then represented as a nonstationary Gaussian random process. On the basis of this fact, the factorial moment generating function of the photocount probability distribution is derived, which accounts automatically for all the finite-counting-time corrections. The time development of the first two moments is compared with the recent results of Arecchi and Degiorgio.
It is well known that photoelectric measurements yield information about the statistical behavior of fluctuating light beams. The probability of n photoelectrons being ejected, in a fixed time interval, from the photosensitive surface of the photoelectric detector, upon which the light beam is normally incident, is a linear (Poisson) transform of the probability density for the intensity of the beam. With the help of some plausible assumptions, the present analysis provides solutions to the problem of inverting the Poisson transform, thus determining the probability density for the intensity from experimentally obtained photocounting distributions. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by an actual inversion of a typical experimental counting distribution. The technique is of particular interest in connection with efforts to understand the statistical behavior of optical fields, especially of laser fields.
It is well known that the photocount distribution associated with the photoelectric detection of fluctuating light beams carries information about the probability density of the light intensity. In this paper, we present an exact solution to a problem of particular interest which arises in connection with the photoelectric detection of narrow-band Gaussian (thermal or pseudothermal) light, namely, the problem of determining the photocount distribution when the counting-time interval is not necessarily short compared to the coherence time of the light. The method developed in this paper is applied to the case where the spectral profile of the light is Lorentzian; it leads to an exact expression for the photocount generating function and it provides simple recurrence relations for the photocount distribution and for its factorial moments.
Exact photocounting distributions are obtained for a pulse of light whose intensity is exponentially decaying in time, when the underlying photon statistics are Poisson. It is assumed that the starting time for the sampling interval (which is of arbitrary duration) is uniformly distributed. The probability of registering n counts in the fixed time T is given in terms of the incomplete gamma function for n >/= 1 and in terms of the exponential integral for n = 0. Simple closed-form expressions are obtained for the count mean and variance. The results are expected to be of interest in certain studies involving spontaneous emission, radiation damage in solids, and nuclear counting. They will also be useful in neurobiology and psychophysics, since habituation and sensitization processes may sometimes be characterized by the same stochastic model.
We study the photocounting statistics and the integrated intensity distribution of partially polarized Gaussian light. Expressions for the characteristic functions of the two distributions are obtained in terms of the eigenvalues of an associated integral equation. Closed-form expressions for these characteristic functions are derived for the special case when the spectral profile of the light is Lorentzian. Results from a numerical evaluation of the factorial moments of the number of photoelectrons in a given time interval and of the integrated intensity distribution are also presented.