Quantitative verification of ab initio self-consistent laser theory.

Area of Science:

• Laser physics
• Quantum optics
• Semical physics

Background:

• The widely used third-order approximation in semiclassical laser theory often fails to accurately predict laser properties.
• Existing theories struggle to capture complex multimode laser dynamics, especially non-linear effects like hole-burning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To generalize and validate the "ab initio" self-consistent (AISC) time-independent semiclassical laser theory.
• To assess the AISC theory's ability to predict stationary lasing properties in the multimode regime.
• To compare the generalized AISC theory against full time-dependent Maxwell-Bloch simulations.

Main Methods:

• Generalization of the AISC theory to remove the slowly-varying envelope approximation.
• Inputting simple parameters such as dielectric function, atomic transition frequency, and transverse relaxation time.
• Comparing theoretical predictions with results from time-dependent Maxwell-Bloch equation simulations.

Main Results:

• The generalized AISC theory accurately predicts multimode laser frequencies, thresholds, fields, output power, and emission patterns.
• Excellent quantitative agreement was achieved between the AISC theory and full time-dependent simulations.
• The theory, being infinite order in non-linear hole-burning, significantly outperforms the commonly used third-order approximation.

Conclusions:

• The generalized AISC theory provides a robust and accurate framework for understanding and predicting multimode laser behavior.
• This self-consistent formalism offers a powerful alternative to computationally intensive time-dependent simulations.
• The study highlights the limitations of lower-order approximations and the importance of higher-order non-linear effects in laser physics.