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Communications in Theoretical Physics

Photon-Number Distributions of Lasers Generated via Pump-Noise Suppression

Yang Ming, Cao Li, Wu Da-Jin, Zaiguang Li

Published Apr 30, 1998• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The photon-number distribution of lasers generated via pump-noise suppression is derived in the photon-number representation. The derivation shows that the negative probability emerging in the calculation of the photon-number distribution in the photon-number representation is not caused by the representation itself but by the truncation of the master equation. Here without truncating the master equation we derive the characteristic function and the distribution function of the photon-number distribution of the laser system with regular pump and with spontaneous atomic decays being eliminated. It is convenient to use the characteristic function to calculate any order of the moment of the photon-number distribution. Such a method can be used to some more general cases, in which the laser system has imperfectly regular pump and the spontaneous atomic decays are also considered.

DOI
10.1088/0253-6102/29/3/363

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The photon-number distribution of lasers generated via pump-noise suppression is derived in the photon-number representation. The derivation shows that the negative probability emerging in the calculation of the photon-number distribution in the photon-number representation is not caused by the representation itself but by the truncation of the master equation. Here without truncating the master equation we derive the characteristic function and the distribution function of the photon-number distribution of the laser system with regular pump and with spontaneous atomic decays being eliminated. It is convenient to use the characteristic function to calculate any order of the moment of the photon-number distribution. Such a method can be used to some more general cases, in which the laser system has imperfectly regular pump and the spontaneous atomic decays are also considered.
A method on how to take into account pump statistics and spontaneous atomic decays when calculating the photon-number distribution of lasers in photon-number representation is presented. The intracavity phonon-number and extracavity photocount distributions with binomial pump and spontaneous atomic decays are calculated. In two limit cases, the results of calculations transit respectively to the photon-number distributions of systems with common Poissonian pump and regular pump, and both with the spontaneous atomic decays being suppressed.
We calculate intracavity photon-number and extracavity photocount distributions for a pump-noise-suppressed laser, using both the Lamb-Scully laser model in the number-state representation and the Haken-Risken laser model in the coherent representation. When pump fluctuations and spontaneous decay are suppressed, a pump-noise-suppressed laser has intracavity photon-number fluctuations squeezed by a factor up to 1/2. The extracavity photocount fluctuations are at the Poisson level for counting times much shorter than the cavity lifetime, whereas the variance for photocounts can be reduced to the mean of the intracavity photon number, which is markedly sub-Poissonian, under ideal conditions when the counting time is much longer than the cavity lifetime.
The effect of the pump-noise on the statistical properties of the output photon-number is discussed. The master equation for the radiation field valid for any pump fluctuation with steady atomic injection is presented. Far above threshold, the characteristic function for the photon-number distribution is derived without truncating the master equation, the mean value and fluctuation of the output photon-number are also calculated. Thereby the condition of generating sub-Poissonian light is derived and the effect of the pump-noise on the higher-order moment of the output photon-number distribution is analyzed.
A laser with a Poissonian random pump, operated far above threshold, has Poissonian statistics both for the intracavity photon number and for extracavity photocounts. We analyze a pump-noise-suppressed laser using the positive P representation. When the pump noise is suppressed below a critical level, the intracavity photon-number distribution becomes sub-Poissonian.1,2 When the spontaneous decay of the upper lasing level is also eliminated, intracavity photon-number fluctuations can be diminished by a factor up to half. For counting times much shorter than the cavity decay time, the extracavity photocount statistics are essentially Poissonian, since cavity decay dominates. For counting times comparable with or larger than the cavity lifetime, the extracavity photocount statistics become sub-Poissonian. In the limit that intracavity photon-number fluctuations are diminished by one half, the extracavity photocount noise can be completely suppressed for counting times much longer than the cavity lifetime. The cavity mode occupies an incoherent superposition of two states 180° out of phase, both of which diffuse in phase. In the microlaser regime, quantum diffusion between these two states can result in 180° phase jumps, which are in addition to ordinary phase diffusion.
We present a general theory that connects the pump process in multilevel lasers with the statistics of the laser field. The key ingredient in our approach is the derivation of an effective master equation that involves only the two laser levels and that contains a non-Markovian pump term. This pump term gives rise to a narrowing of the photon-number distribution in steady state. The qualitative features of this dynamic noise reduction can be inferred from the eigenvalues of the pump term, which are known analytically. As the mechanism that is responsible for the noise reduction, we identify a correlated excitation process in which the effective excitation rate from the lower to the upper laser level depends on the photon number. This correlated excitation process is very different from an excitation at equidistant times, such as in lasers with periodic external injection. We stress that our approach is general and the treatment nonlinear because we do not resort to approximations such as an adiabatic elimination of atomic variables or the linearization of a Fokker-Planck equation. It is therefore particularly relevant for the description of systems where the active medium consists of a few atoms only and where the field losses are not negligible on the time scale of the atomic relaxations. This would be the case in an ion-trap laser. For such a situation our results are substantially different from those obtained by a linearized treatment. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
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.