Dynamics and Instabilities in Homogeneously Broadened Lasers
Abstract
This thesis describes theoretical and experimental studies of a homogeneously broadened ring dye laser; particularly the two frequency instability in which a bichromatic field emerges from the laser above the instability threshold. The interaction of a bichromatic field with an isolated atomic resonance is examined. The time averaged inversion and the saturated gain exhibit structure in the form of a series of subharmonic resonances. The stability of a strong bichromatic laser field to the growth of a subharmonic probe field is examined. The gain of the subharmonic bichromatic probe field in the presence of the strong bichromatic laser field is calculated. The strong bichromatic field is stable to the growth of the subharmonic fields when the modulation frequency of the strong field coincides with the Rabi frequency of the lasing transition. The existence of chaos in a strongly driven nonlinear system is experimentally investigated in a multimode ring dye laser. A dye laser is pumped with a modulated pump source. The response of the dye laser to commensurate and incommensurate modulations is reported. For commensurate modulations, the dye laser responds in a periodic fashion and the rf spectrum of the dye is composed of a series of harmonics. For incommensurate modulations, the dye laser responds in a quasiperiodic fashion with a broadband rf spectrum.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA218427
Entities
People
- Karl W. Koch Iii
Organizations
- University of Rochester