A system theoretic approach to the self-pulsation of passively Q-switched lasers

Author

Shahruz, S.M. ; Mahavaraha, T.A.

Author_Institution

Berkeley Eng. Res. Inst., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

8

Issue

2

fYear

2000

fDate

3/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

358

Lastpage

365

Abstract

The rate equations of passively Q-switched lasers are considered. These equations represent the dynamics of the photon number in the laser cavity, the population inversion of the laser, and the ground-state population of the saturable absorber, when excited by an input (pumping rate). Having the rate equations, (1) it is shown that the laser is the bounded input-bounded state (BIBS) and the bounded input-bounded output (BIBO) stable and (2) the amplitudes of step inputs are determined for which all equilibrium points of the laser are unstable. The boundedness of the laser output and the instability of its equilibrium points imply that the laser can have a periodic, a quasiperiodic, or a chaotic output. When the output is periodic, the laser is self-pulsating, which is the desirable behavior of the laser

Keywords

Q-switching; laser cavity resonators; laser stability; laser theory; optical chaos; optical saturable absorption; population inversion; bounded input-bounded output; bounded input-bounded state; ground-state population; laser cavity; passively Q-switched lasers; photon number; population inversion; pumping rate; rate equations; saturable absorber; self-pulsating; self-pulsation; step inputs; system theoretic approach; Equations; Fiber lasers; Laser feedback; Laser modes; Laser noise; Laser stability; Laser theory; Optical noise; Optical pulse generation; Pump lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Control Systems Technology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1063-6536

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/87.826807

Filename

826807