dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaRate equation theory of sub-Poissonian laser light
| Authors | Jacques Arnaud |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0201151 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0201151 |
Abstract
Lasers essentially consist of single-mode optical cavities containing two-level atoms with a supply of energy called the pump and a sink of energy, perhaps an optical detector. The latter converts the light energy into a sequence of electrical pulses corresponding to photo-detection events. It was predicted in 1984 on the basis of Quantum Optics and verified experimentally shortly thereafter that when the pump is non-fluctuating the emitted light does not fluctuate much. Precisely, this means that the variance of the number of photo-detection events observed over a sufficiently long period of time is much smaller than the average number of events. Light having that property is said to be ``sub-Poissonian''. The theory presented rests on the concept introduced by Einstein around 1905, asserting that matter may exchange energy with a wave at angular frequency $\omega$ only by multiples of $\hbar\omega$. The optical field energy may only vary by integral multiples of $\hbar\omega$ as a result of matter quantization and conservation of energy. A number of important results relating to isolated optical cavities containing two-level atoms are first established on the basis of the laws of Statistical Mechanics. Next, the laser system with a pump and an absorber of radiation is treated. The expression of the photo-current spectral density found in that manner coincides with the Quantum Optics result. The concepts employed in this paper are intuitive and the algebra is elementary. The paper supplements a previous OQE tutorial paper in establishing a connection between the theory of laser noise and Statistical Mechanics.
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"abstract": "Lasers essentially consist of single-mode optical cavities containing\ntwo-level atoms with a supply of energy called the pump and a sink of energy,\nperhaps an optical detector. The latter converts the light energy into a\nsequence of electrical pulses corresponding to photo-detection events. It was\npredicted in 1984 on the basis of Quantum Optics and verified experimentally\nshortly thereafter that when the pump is non-fluctuating the emitted light does\nnot fluctuate much. Precisely, this means that the variance of the number of\nphoto-detection events observed over a sufficiently long period of time is much\nsmaller than the average number of events. Light having that property is said\nto be ``sub-Poissonian\u0027\u0027. The theory presented rests on the concept introduced\nby Einstein around 1905, asserting that matter may exchange energy with a wave\nat angular frequency $\\omega$ only by multiples of $\\hbar\\omega$. The optical\nfield energy may only vary by integral multiples of $\\hbar\\omega$ as a result\nof matter quantization and conservation of energy. A number of important\nresults relating to isolated optical cavities containing two-level atoms are\nfirst established on the basis of the laws of Statistical Mechanics. Next, the\nlaser system with a pump and an absorber of radiation is treated. The\nexpression of the photo-current spectral density found in that manner coincides\nwith the Quantum Optics result. The concepts employed in this paper are\nintuitive and the algebra is elementary. The paper supplements a previous OQE\ntutorial paper in establishing a connection between the theory of laser noise\nand Statistical Mechanics.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0201151",
"authors": [
"Jacques Arnaud"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Rate equation theory of sub-Poissonian laser light",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0201151"
},
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