Photon Statistics of a Laser with Slow Inversion

Abstract

We have measured the photon number probability distribution of a laser in which the inversion is not slaved to the field. For the experiments, we have used a Nd(3+):YVO(4) laser which has a sufficiently slow inversion to allow measurement of the photon fluctuations at a time scale much shorter than that of the relaxation oscillations. The photon distribution function becomes highly nonstandard (i.e., non-Poissonian) in such a laser; this is consistent with available theoretical work. We point out the relevance of our results for the case of the semiconductor microlaser.

Nonlinear features of quantum fluctuations in a slow-inversion laser

“…(10) with the constant A = 0.19 used as a fitting parameter and the values of ω r , γ r calculated using Eqs. (8) and (9). The results obtained in the numerical simulation for G(t) may be approximated (see the dashed curve 2) by the expression…”

“…[2][3][4][5]). A different behavior of quantum fluctuations appears in slow-inversion lasers of small cavity size [6][7][8][9][10]. Such lasers belong to class B [1] (γ p c γ N ).…”

“…Such lasers belong to class B [1] (γ p c γ N ). In class-B lasers, photon-number fluctuations may be very high, even far above threshold [6][7][8][9][10]. Such behavior of quantum fluctuations was called thresholdless [6].…”

“…In previous investigations, the intensity fluctuations and photon statistics of a slow-inversion laser were studied theoretically and experimentally [6][7][8][9][10]. The questions not considered before concern the optical spectrum and the field correlation function in lasers with the thresholdless intensity fluctuations.…”

Higher-order photon statistics of single-mode laser diodes and microchip solid-state lasers

“…3,4 Recently the photon statistics of a single-mode solid-state Nd:YVO 4 laser were identif ied experimentally. 5 Although laser diodes (LDs) and solid-state lasers (SSLs) are both classif ied as class-B lasers, 6 signif icant discrepancies between LDs and microchip SSLs have been found. These divergences essentially originate from a big (2-4 orders of magnitude) difference in the ratios of f luorescence-to-photon lifetimes of the SSLs and the LDs.…”