Abstract

The optical spectra corresponding to complex intensity pulsation patterns near line-center tuning of single-mode, standing-wave gas lasers contain some simple indicators of the origins of their complexity. Heterodyne measurements show that on detuning of the laser the power density in each component of the optical spectrum undergoes a Lamb-dip-like reduction as it passes through resonance with the zero-velocity atoms. These observations help to explain the sensitive dependence of the dynamics of standing-wave gas lasers on detuning within the Lamp dip and distortions of the Lamb-dip shapes when the lasers are unstable.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

Spontaneous coherent pulsations in standing-wave laser oscillators

Lee W. Casperson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 5(5) 958-969 (1988)

Frequency tristability of single-mode, standing-wave gas lasers containing a saturable absorber

John C. Englund
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 5(5) 1083-1088 (1988)

Spontaneous coherent pulsations in standing-wave laser oscillators: frequency characteristics

Lee W. Casperson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 5(5) 970-978 (1988)

Spontaneous coherent pulsations in 3.39-μm He–Ne standing-wave laser oscillators

Pitak Chenkosol and Lee W. Casperson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20(12) 2539-2547 (2003)

Spontaneous pulsing, period doubling, and quasi-periodicity in a unidirectional, single-mode, inhomogeneously broadened ring laser

L. M. Hoffer, T. H. Chyba, and N. B. Abraham
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 2(1) 102-107 (1985)