Laser Dynamics

The dynamic behavior of a laser is determined by the interaction of the intracavity light field with the gain medium. Essentially, the intracavity laser power can grow or decay exponentially according to the difference between gain and resonator losses, whereas the rate of change in the gain is determined by stimulated and spontaneous emission (and possibly by other effects such as quenching and energy transfer).

With certain approximations, including a not too high laser gain, the dynamics of the intracavity optical power <$P$> and the gain coefficient <$g$> in a continuous-wave laser can be described with the following coupled differential equations:

where <$T_\textrm{rt}$> is the cavity round-trip time, <$l$> the cavity loss, <$g_\rm{ss}$> the small-signal gain (for a given pump intensity), <$\tau_\textrm{g}$> the gain relaxation time (often close to the upper-state lifetime), and <$E_\rm{sat}$> the saturation energy of the gain medium.

Dynamic aspects of special interest in the case of a continuous-wave laser are the switch-on behavior (often including spiking of the output power) and its reaction to disturbances during operation (usually leading to relaxation oscillations). In these respects, different types of lasers exhibit very different behaviors. For example, doped-insulator lasers exhibit a strong tendency for spiking and relaxation oscillations, whereas for laser diodes this is not the case. Dynamic aspects are particularly important in Q-switched lasers, where the energy stored in the gain medium undergoes a large change during pulse emission. Q-switched fiber lasers, typically having a high laser gain, can exhibit additional dynamical phenomena. This can lead to a temporal sub-structure of the pulses, which cannot be explained with equations such as those given above.

Similar equations can be used for passively mode-locked lasers [1]; an additional term appears in the first equation, which describes the losses of the saturable absorber. The effect of this is typically that the damping of the relaxation oscillations is reduced. The relaxation oscillations may even become undamped, so that the steady-state solution becomes unstable, and the laser exhibits Q-switched mode locking or other kinds of Q-switching instabilities.

In optical amplifiers based on laser amplification, there can be a similar interplay of signal power and gain. In the case of a regenerative amplifier, the similarity is strongest.

Case Studies

• Pulse generation in an actively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (with power propagation)
• We simulate pulse generation in an actively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with simple power propagation. This is useful for investigating the laser dynamics.
• Pulse generation in an actively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (with beam propagation)
• We simulate pulse generation in an actively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with numerical beam propagation. There, we see the evolution of the beam profile over the resonator round trips. Close to a mode frequency generation, the changes of beam diameter become substantial.
• Pulse generation in a passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (with power propagation)
• We simulate pulse generation in an passively Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with simple power propagation.

More to Learn

Encyclopedia articles:

• spiking
• relaxation oscillations
• pulse generation
• double pulses
• Q switching