The statistical properties of a homogeneously broadened ring laser with an injected signal are investigated and the normalized two-mode intensity auto- and cross-correlation functions are calculated by a full saturation laser theory with backscattering. The theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. Further investigation reveals that the backscattering can reduce the fluctuations in the system while the full saturation effect plays a major role when the laser is operated above threshold. It is also quite important to notice that the injected signal can drive the weak mode from incoherent light to coherent light.
A unified quantum treatment is presented for bidirectional two-mode ring lasers using the approach of Haken and co-workers. Equations of motion for the reduced density matrix of the field have been derived and used to study the fluctuation properties of the radiation field in different kinds of active media. The steady-state photon number distribution for an inhomogeneously broadened gas ring laser is derived. It is shown that for equal losses the relative fluctuations and normalized cross correlation of the photon numbers approach values
31 and $\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{3}$, respectively, for large excitations. For unequal losses the laser may emit typical single-mode laser radiation in the direction of the favored mode and typical equilibrium blackbody radiation in the direction of the weaker mode. Our results generally agree with the predictions of earlier treatments when the losses are equal. However, for unequal losses we predict different behavior for large excitations. Effects of detuning, spatial, and temporal variation of atomic inversion on the fluctuation properties have been investigated in the coherent-state diagonal representation of the density matrix, and steady-state intensity distributions have been derived for various kinds of active atoms. It is shown that for inhomogeneously broadened solid-state ring lasers spatial inhomogeneities may couple the modes strongly and the statistical properties of such lasers, characterized by a double-peaked intensity distribution and large relative-intensity fluctuations, may be similar to those of a homogeneously broadened ring laser. Curves are presented to illustrate the behavior.
The fluctuations and correlations of the light intensities associated with the two counterrotating modes of a ring laser have been investigated by measurement of the photoelectric counting statistics. With the laser tuned to line center, it is found that the weaker mode intensity does not grow with increasing pump parameter above threshold and that its relative intensity fluctuations do not die out, as in a conventional laser, but become thermal instead. The cross-correlation coefficient tends toward a constant negative value. The results are all in substantial quantitative agreement with the theory.