Optical Maser Oscillators and Noise

Abstract

The transmission line matrix formalism so useful for describing the transfer properties of microwave networks is extended to the electromagnetic fields associated with optical masers. The spontaneous emission noise of the optical maser is examined and shown to be amenable to a thermal description. Taking the point of view, well accepted at microwave frequencies, that a weakly nonlinear oscillator is a saturated amplifier of noise, the power and linewidth of the noise radiation emitted by the optical maser is calculated using the transmission line formalism. The significant parameters for any optical maser are shown to be the frequency, the single‐pass gain of the maser medium, the effective mirror reflectivity and the population ratio. The pre‐oscillation characteristics of the maser are examined and the reason for the extremely sharp oscillation threshold of the gas masers is discussed. Some observations concerning semiconductor optical masers are also made.

Equivalent circuit theory of spontaneous emission power in semiconductor laser optical amplifiers

“…The spontaneous emission power from this amplifier in the absence of any input signal will then be analyzed by the proposed equivalent circuit model. This result has also been derived analytically by Gordon [12] as well as Henry using the Green function approach [lo]. Let us first consider the fields just before the output facet (i.e., ?…”

“…In the present situation, there is no input signal to the amplifier, and hence will only consist of amplified SE's. With these conventions, the field U M +~ can be rewritten as (12) where the term A will be representing the gain of the section, that is = exp (%) . (13) Using the transfer matrix relation of (see (11) shown at the bottom of the page), ug can be written in a form similar to (12) Equation (14) implies that the accumulated fluctuations leaving the ( M -1)th subnetwork in Fig.…”

“…Its validity will then be verified by using the model to analyze SE's generated by a Fabry-Perot amplifier (FPA) in Section 111. This can be analyzed by the Green function approach [lo] or the method used by Gordon [12] as well. By checking the result of the analysis obtained from the new equivalent circuit model with that obtained using these conventional results, it can be shown that the equivalent circuit model is accurate and hence will be capable of modeling a SLA efficiently.…”

Advances in Measurements of Physical Parameters of Semiconductor Lasers

“…Following equation describes the dependence of the ASE intensity on the wavelength [7] in the approximation of uniform gain inside the laser cavity:…”

“…(2.6). E. Gordon demonstrated [7] that the optical gain in the oscillator system governed by Eq. (2.6) is:…”