Quantitative test of general theories of the intrinsic laser linewidth

Abstract

We perform a first-principles calculation of the quantum-limited laser linewidth, testing the predictions of recently developed theories of the laser linewidth based on fluctuations about the known steady-state laser solutions against traditional forms of the Schawlow-Townes linewidth. The numerical study is based on finite-difference time-domain simulations of the semiclassical Maxwell-Bloch lasing equations, augmented with Langevin force terms, and thus includes the effects of dispersion, losses due to the open boundary of the laser cavity, and non-linear coupling between the amplitude and phase fluctuations ($\alpha$ factor). We find quantitative agreement between the numerical results and the predictions of the noisy steady-state ab initio laser theory (N-SALT), both in the variation of the linewidth with output power, as well as the emergence of side-peaks due to relaxation oscillations.

24 pages, 10 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Multimode Lasing in Wave-Chaotic Semiconductor Microlasers
• Giant frequency-selective near-field energy transfer in active--passive structures
• Enhanced response of non-Hermitian photonic systems near exceptional points
• Why the laser linewidth is so narrow: A modern perspective
• Amplified and directional spontaneous emission from arbitrary composite bodies: self-consistent treatment of Purcell effect below threshold
• Ab-initio theory of quantum fluctuations and relaxation oscillations in multimode lasers