Photon noise reduction in lasers
- Fachbereich Physik, Universitaet-Gesamthochschule Essen, 4300 Essen, Federal Republic of Germany (Germnay, F.R.)
- Physics Department, University of Auckland, Auckland, (New Zealand)
We consider the problem of reducing the contributions of pump and spontaneous-emission noise to the output noise of a laser field. We consider two models based on an atomic medium, one analytic, the other involving numerical simulation of a sequence of pump cycles. The predictions of both models are shown to agree. For regular pump excitation the intensity fluctuations of a laser well above threshold may be reduced to zero at the cavity resonance frequency if the ratio of the lifetimes of the upper and lower lasing levels is sufficiently large that spontaneous emission is suppressed. When the atomic lifetimes are comparable, spontaneous emission reduces the amount of noise reduction. For example, for equal atomic lifetimes regular pump excitation will result in a maximum noise reduction in the output field of one-half the shot-noise limit.
- OSTI ID:
- 7267789
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review (Section) A: General Physics; (USA), Journal Name: Physical Review (Section) A: General Physics; (USA) Vol. 40:12; ISSN PLRAA; ISSN 0556-2791
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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