9 Laser Oscillation

9.1 CONDITIONS FOR LASER OSCILLATION

..............................................................................................................
The word laser is the acronym of light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
A medium that is pumped to population inversion has an optical gain to amplify an optical
field through stimulated emission. Besides optical amplification, however, positive optical
feedback is normally required for laser oscillation. This requirement is fulfilled by placing
the gain medium in an optical resonator. One major characteristic of laser light is that it is
highly collimated and is spatially and temporally coherent. The directionality of laser light is a
direct consequence of the fact that laser oscillation takes place only along a longitudinal axis
defined by the optical resonator. The spatial and temporal coherence results from the fact that a
photon emitted by stimulated emission is coherent with the photon that induces the emission.
The gain medium emits spontaneous photons in all directions, but only the radiation that
propagates along the longitudinal axis within a small divergence angle defined by the resonator
obtains sufficient regenerative amplification through stimulated emission to reach the threshold
for oscillation. In order for the oscillating laser field to be most efficiently amplified in the
longitudinal direction, any spontaneous photons emitted in a direction outside of that small
angular range must not be allowed to compete for the gain. For this reason, a functional laser
oscillator is necessarily an open cavity that provides optical feedback only along the longitu-
dinal axis. Most of the randomly directed spontaneous photons quickly escape from the cavity
through the open sides. Only a very small fraction of them that happen to be emitted within the
divergence angle of the laser field mix with the coherent oscillating laser field to become the
major incoherent noise source of the laser.
A laser is basically a coherent optical oscillator, and the basic function of an oscillator is to
generate a coherent signal through resonant oscillation without an input signal. No external
optical field is injected into the optical cavity for laser oscillation. The intracavity optical field
has to grow from the field that is generated by spontaneous emission from the intracavity gain
medium. When steady-state oscillation is reached, the coherent laser field at any given location
inside the cavity has to be a constant of time in both phase and magnitude. In the model shown
in Fig. 9.1, the situation of steady-state laser oscillation requires that Ein ¼ 0 while Ec ðzÞ 6¼ 0 at
any intracavity location z does not change with time. By applying this concept to (6.5) while
using (6.4), we find the condition for steady-state laser oscillation:
a ¼ G exp ðiφRT Þ ¼ 1, (9.1)
where a is the round-trip complex amplification factor for the intracavity field, G is the round-
trip gain factor for the intracavity field amplitude, and φRT is the round-trip phase shift for the

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 9.1 Conditions for Laser Oscillation 275

Figure 9.1 Fabry–Pérot laser.

intracavity field, as defined in (6.4). This general condition for laser oscillation applies to lasers
of various cavity structures that use different feedback mechanisms, including Fabry–Pérot
lasers, ring lasers, and distributed-feedback lasers. To illustrate the implications of this condi-
tion, we consider in the following the simple Fabry–Pérot laser shown in Fig. 9.1 that contains
an isotropic gain medium with a filling factor of Γ.
The total permittivity of the gain medium, including the contribution of the resonant laser
transition, is ϵ res ¼ ϵ þ ϵ 0 χ res , as given in (6.36). Therefore, the total complex propagation
constant of the gain medium, including the contribution from the resonant transition, is
1=2 g
kg ¼ ωμ0 ðϵ þ ϵ 0 χ res Þ1=2 ¼ k þ Δkres  i , (9.2)
2
where
χ 0res ω 0
Δkres  k
¼ χ , (9.3)
2n 2 2nc res
χ 00 ω
g  k res 2
¼  χ 00res : (9.4)
n nc
Here g is the gain coefficient of the laser medium, which is identified in (7.50), and Δkres is the
corresponding change in the propagation constant caused by the change in the refractive index
of the gain medium due to the changes in the population densities of the laser levels. When
population inversion is achieved, χ 00res < 0 so that the gain coefficient g has a positive value.
By replacing k for a cold medium with k g for a pumped gain medium, we find that k given in (6.38)
for a cold cavity has to be replaced with k þ ΓΔk res  iΓg=2 when an actively pumped laser cavity is
considered. We then find for an active laser cavity the mode-dependent round-trip gain factor,
1=2 1=2
Gmn ¼ R1 R2 exp ½ðΓmn g  αmn Þl, (9.5)
and the mode-dependent round-trip phase shift,
RT
φRT
mn ¼ 2ðk þ ΓΔk res Þl þ ζ mn þ φ1 þ φ2 : (9.6)
Because both Gmn and φRT
are real parameters, the oscillation condition given in (9.1) can be
mn
satisfied for a given laser mode to oscillate only if the gain condition

Gmn ¼ 1 (9.7)
and the phase condition

φRT
mn ¼ 2qπ, q ¼ 1, 2, . . . (9.8)
are simultaneously fulfilled. Note that both Gmn and φRT
mn are frequency dependent.

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 276 Laser Oscillation

9.1.1 Laser Threshold

The condition in (9.7) implies that there exist a threshold gain and a corresponding threshold
pumping level for laser oscillation. For the Fabry–Pérot laser shown in Fig. 9.1, which has a
length of l and contains a gain medium of a length lg for a filling factor of Γ ¼ lg =l, the
threshold gain coefficient, g th
mn , of the TEMmn mode is given by

1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Γg th
mn ¼ αmn  ln R1 R2 , (9.9)
l
or
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
g th
mn lg ¼ αmn l  ln R1 R2 : (9.10)

Because the distributed loss αmn is mode dependent, the threshold gain coefficient g th mn varies
from one transverse mode to another. In addition, the effective gain coefficient can be different
for different transverse modes because different transverse modes have different field distribu-
tion patterns and thus overlap with the gain volume differently. The transverse mode that has
the lowest loss and the largest effective gain at any given pumping level reaches threshold first
and starts oscillating at the lowest pumping level. In the typical laser, the transverse mode that
reaches threshold first is normally the fundamental TEM00 mode.
Unless a frequency-selecting mechanism is placed in a laser to create a frequency-
dependent loss that varies from one longitudinal mode to another, the threshold gain coeffi-
cient g thmn varies little among the mnq longitudinal modes of different q values that share the
common mn transverse mode pattern. It is possible, however, to introduce a frequency-
selecting device to a laser cavity to make αmn and, consequently, g thmn of a given mn transverse
mode highly frequency dependent for the purpose of selecting or tuning the oscillating laser
frequency.
The power required to pump a laser to reach its threshold is called the threshold pump
power, Pth p . Because the threshold gain coefficient is mode dependent and frequency
dependent, the threshold pump power is also mode dependent and frequency dependent.
The threshold pump power of a laser mode can be found by calculating the power required
for the gain medium to have an unsaturated gain coefficient equal to the threshold gain
coefficient of the mode: g 0 ¼ g th mn ðωmnq Þ, assuming uniform pumping throughout the gain
medium. For a quasi-two-level or three-level laser, there is also a transparency pump power,
Ptrp , for g 0 ¼ 0, assuming uniform pumping. In the situation of nonuniform pumping, these
conditions for reaching threshold and transparency have to be modified. Clearly, Ptrp < Pth
p by
definition.

EXAMPLE 9.1
A Nd:YAG laser for the λ ¼ 1:064 μm laser wavelength consists of a Nd:YAG laser rod of a
length lg ¼ 3 cm as a gain medium in a Fabry–Pérot cavity, which is formed by two mirrors of
reflectivities R1 ¼ 90% and R2 ¼ 100% at a physical spacing of l ¼ 10 cm. The surfaces of the
laser rod are antireflection coated to eliminate losses and undesirable effects. The cross-
sectional area of the laser rod is larger than that of the TEM00 Gaussian laser mode. This laser

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 9.2 Mode-Pulling Effect 277

mode has a distributed optical loss of α ¼ 0:1 m1 . Find the threshold gain coefficient of this
laser mode.

Solution:
Using (9.10), we find with the given parameters that the threshold gain coefficient of the TEM00
Gaussian laser mode is

1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
g th ¼ ðαl  ln R1 R2 Þ ¼ ð0:1  0:1  ln 0:9  1Þ m1 ¼ 2:09 m1 :
lg 0:03

9.2 MODE-PULLING EFFECT

..............................................................................................................
Comparing (9.6) for an active Fabry–Pérot laser with (6.40) for its cold cavity, we find that,
through its dependence on Δkres , the round-trip phase shift of a field in a laser cavity is a
function of χ 0res . Consequently, the longitudinal mode frequencies ωmnq at which a laser
oscillates are not exactly the same as the longitudinal mode frequencies ωcmnq given in (6.41)
for the cold Fabry–Pérot cavity.
Using (9.6) and (9.8), we find that the longitudinal mode frequencies of a Fabry–Pérot laser
are related to those of its cold cavity by the relation:
   
χ 0res 1 χ 0res
ωmnq ¼ ωcmnq 1þ c
 ωmnq 1  : (9.11)
2nn 2nn

Clearly, the laser mode frequencies ωmnq differ from the cold-cavity mode frequencies because they
vary with the resonant susceptibility, which depends on the level of population inversion in the gain
medium. This dependence of the laser mode frequencies on the population inversion in the gain
medium is caused by the fact that the refractive index and the gain of the medium are directly connected
to each other, as is dictated by the Kramers–Kronig relation. This effect causes a frequency shift of

χ 0res c
δωmnq ¼ ωmnq  ωcmnq   ω (9.12)
2nn mnq

for the oscillation frequency of mode mnq. Because of the frequency dependence of χ 0res , the
dependence of this frequency shift on χ 0res results in the mode-pulling effect demonstrated in
Fig. 9.2. Near the transition resonance frequency, ω21 , of the gain medium, χ 0res is highly dispersive.
When a medium is pumped to have population inversion for a transition that has a resonance
frequency of ω21 , χ 00res ðωÞ < 0 for either ω < ω21 or ω > ω21 , but χ 0res ðωÞ < 0 for ω < ω21 and
χ 0res ðωÞ > 0 for ω > ω21 . As a result, ωmnq > ωcmnq for ωcmnq < ω21 , whereas ωmnq < ωcmnq for
ωcmnq > ω21 . Therefore, in comparison to the resonance frequencies of the cold cavity, the mode
frequencies of a laser are pulled toward the transition resonance frequency of the gain medium. In

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 278 Laser Oscillation

Figure 9.2 Frequency-pulling effect for laser modes. Compared to the resonance frequencies of the cold cavity
shown as dotted lines, the mode frequencies of an active laser shown as solid lines are pulled toward the
transition resonance frequency of the gain medium in the situation of population inversion. The real and
imaginary parts of the gain susceptibility as a function of optical frequency are shown.

addition, the longitudinal modes belonging to a common transverse mode are no longer equally
spaced in frequency. In a laser of a relatively high gain and a large dispersion, such as a
semiconductor laser, this effect can result in a large variation in the frequency spacing between
neighboring laser modes.
Because of the frequency dependence of the gain coefficient g due to the frequency
dependence of χ 00res , different longitudinal modes not only experience different values of
refractive index but also see different values of gain coefficient, as also illustrated in Fig. 9.2.
A longitudinal mode that has a frequency close to the gain peak at the transition resonance
frequency has a higher gain than one that has a frequency far away from the gain peak.

EXAMPLE 9.2
A Nd:YAG laser contains a Nd:YAG rod described in Example 8.1 in a cavity described in
Example 9.1. The refractive index of the Nd:YAG crystal is n ¼ 1:82. Find the largest
frequency shift of the longitudinal mode frequencies of the Nd:YAG laser due to the mode-
pulling effect. How large is this frequency shift compared to the longitudinal mode frequency
spacing?

Solution:
From Example 9.1, we find that the gain coefficient is g ¼ g th ¼ 2:09 m1 when the TEM00
laser mode is pumped to its threshold. The overlap factor is Γ ¼ lg =l ¼ 0:3; thus, the weighted
average refractive index seen by the laser mode is

n ¼ 0:3  1:82 þ ð1  0:3Þ  1 ¼ 1:246:

With λ ¼ 1:064 μm at the transition frequency ω21 , we find that the maximum value of the
imaginary part of the resonant susceptibility associated with this laser transition is

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 9.3 Oscillating Laser Modes 279

nc nλ 1:82  1:064  106

χ 00res ðω21 Þ ¼  g¼ g¼  2:09 ¼ 6:44  107 ,
ω21 2π 2π
which appears at the line center. Because this laser transition is a discrete atomic transition, the
real part χ 0res has the largest absolute value at two frequencies. With χ 00res ðω21 Þ < 0, χ 0res has the
largest negative value of χ 0res ðω Þ ¼ χ 00res ðω21 Þ=2 at the frequency ω ¼ ω21  γ and the largest
positive value of χ 0res ðωþ Þ ¼ χ 00res ðω21 Þ=2 at ωþ ¼ ω21 þ γ, as seen in Figs. 2.3 and 9.2. Thus,

jχ 0res jmax ¼ jχ 00res ðω21 Þ=2j ¼ 3:22  107 :

For a Nd:YAG laser at λ ¼ 1:064 μm, γ=ω21  2  104 because the gain linewidth is about
Δvg ¼ γ=π  120 GHz, whereas the laser frequency is v21 ¼ ω21 =2π ¼ c=λ  283 THz. There-
fore, we can take the approximation that ωc ¼ ω ¼ ω21  γ  ω21 for (9.12) to find the
absolute value of the largest frequency shift caused by mode pulling:

jδωjmax jχ 0res jmax 3:22  107

jδvjmax ¼  ν21 ¼  283  1012 Hz ¼ 20:1 MHz:
2π 2nn 2  1:82  1:246

This is the largest amount of frequency shift, which occurs for a longitudinal mode that has a cold-
cavity mode frequency at either the positive or negative half-width points vc,  ¼ v21  Δvg =2. As
shown in Fig. 9.2, the mode that is closest to the lower frequency, vc,  ¼ v21  Δvg =2, is pulled
up by an amount of approximately jδvjmax , whereas the mode that is closest to the higher
frequency, νc, þ ¼ v21 þ Δνg =2, is pulled down by an amount of approximately jδvjmax .
The longitudinal mode frequency spacing is

c 3  108
ΔνL ¼ ¼ Hz ¼ 1:204 GHz:
2nl 2  1:246  10  102

Thus, the percentage of the maximum mode-pulling frequency shift is

jδνjmax 20:1  106

¼  1:67%:
ΔνL 1:204  109

This frequency shift is appreciable though small. It is small because the dispersive effect of the
optical gain is small in the Nd:YAG medium. It can be much larger in a highly dispersive gain
medium, such as a semiconductor laser gain medium.

9.3 OSCILLATING LASER MODES

..............................................................................................................
Because the gain coefficient is a function of frequency, the net gain coefficient, g  g th
mn , of a
laser mode is always frequency dependent and varies among different transverse modes and
among different longitudinal modes no matter whether the threshold gain coefficient g th mn of a
transverse mode is frequency dependent or not. At a low pumping level before the laser starts

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 280 Laser Oscillation

oscillating, the net gain is negative for all laser modes. As the pumping level increases, the
mode that first reaches its threshold starts to oscillate.
Once a laser starts oscillating in one mode, whether any other longitudinal or transverse modes
have the opportunity to oscillate through further increase of the pumping level is a complicated
issue of mode interaction and competition that depends on a variety of factors, including the
properties of the gain medium, the structure of the laser, the pumping geometry, the nonlinearity
in the system, and the operating condition of the laser. Here we only discuss some basic concepts
in the situation of steady-state oscillation of a CW laser. Interaction and competition among laser
modes are more complicated when a laser is pulsed than when it is in CW operation. Therefore,
some of the conclusions obtained below may not be valid for a pulsed laser.
The gain condition in (9.7) implies that once a given laser mode is oscillating in the steady state,
the gain that is available to this mode does not increase with increased pumping above the threshold
pumping level because Gmn has to be kept at unity for the steady-state oscillation of a laser mode.
Thus the effective gain coefficient of an oscillating mode is “clamped” at the threshold level of the
mode as long as the pumping level is kept at or above threshold. The mechanism for holding down
the gain coefficient at the threshold level is the effect of gain saturation discussed in Section 8.3. An
increase in the pumping level above threshold only increases the field intensity of the oscillating
mode in the cavity, but the gain coefficient is saturated at the threshold value by the high intensity of
the intracavity laser field. The fact that the gain of a laser mode oscillating in the steady state is
saturated at the threshold value has a significant effect on the mode characteristics of a CW laser.

9.3.1 Homogeneously Broadened Lasers

When the gain medium of a laser is homogeneously broadened, all modes that occupy the same
spatial gain region compete for the gain from the population inversion in the same group of active
atoms. As the mode that first reaches threshold starts oscillating, the entire gain curve supported by
this group of atoms saturates. Because this oscillating mode is normally the one that has a
longitudinal mode frequency closest to the gain peak and a transverse mode pattern of the lowest
loss, the gain curve is saturated in such a manner that its value at this longitudinal mode frequency is
clamped at the threshold value of the transverse mode that has the lowest threshold gain coefficient
among all transverse modes. If the gain peak does not happen to coincide with this mode frequency,
it still lies above the threshold when the gain curve is saturated, as shown in Fig. 9.3. Nevertheless,
all other longitudinal modes belonging to this transverse mode have frequencies away from the gain
peak. Therefore, even with increased pumping, they do not have sufficient gain to reach threshold
because the entire gain curve shared by these modes is saturated, as illustrated in Fig. 9.3. Other
transverse modes that are supported solely by this group of saturated, homogeneously broadened
atoms do not have the opportunity to oscillate either, because the gain curve is saturated below their
respective threshold levels. Nevertheless, because different transverse modes have different spatial
field distributions, a high-order transverse mode may draw its gain from a gain region outside of the
region that is saturated by a low-order transverse mode. Therefore, when the pumping level is
increased, a high-order transverse mode may still reach its relatively high threshold for oscillation if
a low-order transverse mode of a low threshold is already oscillating.
Consequently, for a homogeneously broadened CW laser in steady-state oscillation, only one
among all of the longitudinal modes belonging to a particular transverse mode will oscillate, but

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 9.3 Oscillating Laser Modes 281

Figure 9.3 Gain saturation in a homogeneously broadened laser. Only one longitudinal mode whose frequency
is closest to the gain peak oscillates. The entire gain curve is saturated such that the gain at the single oscillating
frequency remains at the loss level.

it is possible for more than one transverse mode to oscillate simultaneously at a high pumping
level. Note that this conclusion does not hold true for a pulsed laser. It is possible for multiple
longitudinal modes belonging to the same transverse mode to oscillate simultaneously in a
pulsed laser even when its gain medium is homogeneously broadened.

EXAMPLE 9.3
The Nd:YAG laser described in Examples 9.1 and 9.2 has a Lorentzian gain lineshape that has a
bandwidth of Δλg ¼ 0:45 nm for the laser line at λ ¼ 0:064 μm. It is pumped at a level such that
the peak unsaturated gain coefficient is twice the threshold gain coefficient: g max
0 ¼ 2g th . How
many longitudinal modes have their unsaturated gain coefficients pumped above the threshold?
How many longitudinal modes oscillate?

Solution:
The gain bandwidth in terms of frequency is
 Δν   Δλ 
 g  g
 ¼ :
ν λ
With Δλg ¼ 0:45 nm and λ ¼ 1:064 μm,

ν c 3  108
Δνg ¼ Δλg ¼ 2 Δλg ¼  0:45  109 Hz ¼ 119:25 GHz:
λ λ ð1:064  106 Þ2
When the laser is pumped such that g max
0 ¼ 2g th , the two frequencies at the two ends of the
FWHM of the gain bandwidth have an unsaturated gain coefficient of g 0 ¼ g th . Therefore,
every mode that has a frequency within the FWHM, Δνg ¼ 119:25 GHz, of the gain bandwidth
has an unsaturated gain coefficient above the threshold value. From Example 9.2, the longitu-
dinal mode frequency spacing is

c 3  108
ΔνL ¼ ¼ Hz ¼ 1:204 GHz:
2nl 2  1:246  10  102
Then,

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 282 Laser Oscillation

Δνg 119:25
¼ ¼ 99:04:
ΔνL 1:204
Therefore, depending on where the longitudinal mode frequencies are located with respect to
the gain peak, 99 or 100 longitudinal modes have unsaturated gain coefficients that are above
the threshold value.
Because the gain spectrum has a Lorentzian lineshape, the laser is homogeneously broadened.
Therefore, ideally only one longitudinal mode oscillates. Though 99 or 100 longitudinal modes are
each pumped to have an unsaturated gain coefficient above the threshold value, all of them except
the oscillating mode are saturated below the threshold by the oscillating mode, which reaches the
threshold first. In practice, however, we often find that a Nd:YAG laser oscillates steadily in more
than one mode because it is not completely homogeneously broadened though it is predominantly
so. The degree of inhomogeneous broadening determines the number of oscillating modes.

9.3.2 Inhomogeneously Broadened Lasers

In a laser that has an inhomogeneously broadened gain medium, there are different groups of active
atoms in the same spatial gain region. Each group saturates independently. Two modes occupying
the same spatial gain region do not compete for the same group of atoms if the separation of their
frequencies is larger than the homogeneous linewidth of each group of atoms. When one longitu-
dinal mode reaches threshold and oscillates, the gain coefficient is saturated only within the spectral
range of a homogeneous linewidth around its frequency, while the gain coefficient at frequencies
outside this small range continues to increase with increased pumping. As the pumping level
increases, other longitudinal modes can successively reach threshold and oscillate. As a result, at a
sufficiently high pumping level, multiple longitudinal modes belonging to the same transverse
mode can oscillate simultaneously. The saturation of the gain coefficient in a small spectral range
within a homogeneous linewidth around each of the frequencies of these oscillating modes, but not
across the entire gain curve, creates the effect of spectral hole burning in the gain curve of an
inhomogeneously broadened laser medium, as illustrated in Fig. 9.4. Different transverse modes

Figure 9.4 Spectral hole burning effect in the gain saturation of an inhomogeneously broadened laser. Multiple
longitudinal modes oscillate simultaneously at a sufficiently high pumping level. The gain at each oscillating
frequency is saturated at the loss level. The mode-pulling effect is ignored in this illustration.

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 9.3 Oscillating Laser Modes 283

also saturate independently in an inhomogeneously broadened medium if their frequencies are

sufficiently separated. Therefore, an inhomogeneously broadened laser can also oscillate in
multiple transverse modes.

EXAMPLE 9.4
A He–Ne laser has a Doppler-broadened gain bandwidth of Δνg ¼ 1:5 GHz at its laser
wavelength of λ ¼ 632:8 nm. The laser has a cavity length of l ¼ 32 cm. It is pumped at a
level such that the peak unsaturated gain coefficient is twice the threshold gain coefficient:
g max
0 ¼ 2g th . How many longitudinal modes have their unsaturated gain coefficients pumped
above the threshold? How many longitudinal modes oscillate?

Solution:
When the laser is pumped such that g max
0 ¼ 2g th , the two frequencies at the two end of the
FWHM Δvg of the gain bandwidth have an unsaturated gain coefficient of g 0 ¼ g th . Therefore,
the laser has a bandwidth of Δv ¼ Δvg ¼ 1:5 GHz. Every mode that has a frequency within this
bandwidth has an unsaturated gain coefficient above the threshold value. With l ¼ 32 cm and
n  1 for the gaseous He–Ne laser gain medium, the longitudinal mode frequency spacing is

c 3  108
ΔνL ¼ ¼ Hz ¼ 468:75 MHz:
2nl 2  1  32  102
Then,

Δν 1:5  109
¼ ¼ 3:2:
ΔνL 468:75  106
Therefore, three or four longitudinal modes have unsaturated gain coefficients that are above
the threshold value, depending on where the longitudinal mode frequencies are located with
respect to the gain peak. Because the gain spectrum is Doppler broadened, the laser is
inhomogeneously broadened. All longitudinal modes above threshold oscillate.

9.3.3 Laser Linewidth

The linewidth of an oscillating laser mode is still described by (6.18):
1  Gmnq L
Δνmnq ¼ Δνmn , (9.13)
πGmnq

where the longitudinal mode frequency spacing ΔνLmn might vary for different transverse modes.
From this relation, we see that in practice the round-trip field gain factor Gmnq of a laser mode in
steady-state oscillation cannot be exactly equal to unity because the laser linewidth cannot be
zero, due to the existence of spontaneous emission. In reality, in steady-state oscillation the
value of Gmnq is slightly less than unity, with the small difference made up by spontaneous
emission. Clearly, the linewidth of an oscillating laser mode is determined by the amount of

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 284 Laser Oscillation

spontaneous emission that is channeled into the laser mode. Therefore, (9.13) is not very useful
for calculating the linewidth of a laser mode in steady-state oscillation without knowing the
exact value of Gmnq in the presence of spontaneous emission.
A detailed analysis taking into account spontaneous emission yields the Schawlow–Townes
relation for the linewidth of a laser mode in terms of the laser parameters:

2πhvðΔνcmnq Þ2 hv
ΔνST
mnq ¼ N sp ¼ N sp , (9.14)
Pout
mnq 2πðτ cmnq Þ2 Pout
mnq

where Δνcmnq and τ cmnq are respectively the cold-cavity linewidth and the photon lifetime of the
oscillating mnq mode, Poutmnq is the output power of the oscillating laser mode, and

σeN 2 σeN 2 N 2
N sp ¼ ¼ ¼ (9.15)
σeN 2  σaN 1 g N
is the spontaneous emission factor that measures the degree of the effective population inversion
in the gain medium. The effective population inversion defined as N ¼ g=σ e in (8.5) is the
population density that is able to contribute to the coherent stimulate emission, which does not
broaden the laser linewidth, whereas all of the upper level population N 2 contributes to the
incoherent spontaneous emission, which broadens the laser linewidth. The effect of spontaneous
emission on the linewidth of an oscillating laser mode enters the relation in (9.14) through the
population densities of the laser levels in the form of the spontaneous emission factor.
Because N sp  1, the ultimate lower limit of the laser linewidth, which is known as the
Schawlow–Townes limit, is that given in (9.14) for N sp ¼ 1. It can also be seen that the
linewidth of a laser mode decreases as the laser power increases. This phenomenon is easily
understood. Because the gain of an oscillating laser mode is clamped at its threshold level,
increased pumping above threshold does not increase the population inversion, and thus does
not increase the spontaneous emission, which is proportional to the population of the upper
laser level. When the power of an oscillating laser mode increases with increased pumping, the
coherent stimulated emission increases proportionally but the incoherent spontaneous emission
is clamped at its threshold level. As a result, the linewidth of the laser mode decreases with
increasing laser power.

EXAMPLE 9.5
Find the minimum possible linewidth that is set by the Schawlow–Townes limit for the
oscillating laser mode of the Nd:YAG laser described in Examples 9.1 and 9.2 when the laser
is pumped sufficiently above the threshold so that the output power of the mode at
λ ¼ 1:064 μm is 100 mW.

Solution:
The Nd:YAG laser described in Examples 9.1 and 9.2 has a Fabry–Pérot cavity that has a
length of l ¼ 10 cm, a weighted average index of n ¼ 1:246, a distributed loss of α ¼ 0:1 m1 ,
and mirror reflectivities of R1 ¼ 90% and R2 ¼ 100%. Therefore, from (6.45), the cold-cavity
photon lifetime of the laser mode is

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 9.4 Laser Power 285

nl 1:246  10  102
τc ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi s ¼ 6:63 ns:
cðαl  ln R1 R2 Þ 3  108  ð0:1  10  102  ln 0:9  1Þ

Because Nd:YAG is a four-level system which has σ a ¼ 0, it has N sp ¼ 1 as can be seen from
(9.15). The photon energy at the λ ¼ 1:064 μm laser wavelength is
1:2398
hv ¼ eV ¼ 1:165 eV:
1:064
For an oscillating laser mode that has an output power of Pout ¼ 100 mW, the minimum
possible linewidth set by the Schawlow–Townes limit is found using (9.14):

hv 1:165  1:6  1019

ΔvST ¼ N sp ¼  1 Hz ¼ 6:7 mHz:
2πτ 2c Pout 2π  ð6:63  109 Þ2  100  103
This minimum possible oscillating laser mode linewidth is nine orders of magnitude smaller
than the cold-cavity longitudinal linewidth of Δvc ¼ ð2πτ c Þ1  27:9 MHz. The significant line
narrowing is caused by the coherent stimulated emission. However, the Schawlow–Townes
linewidth found above is only the fundamental lower bound limited by the spontaneous
emission noise, which can be approached if all other noise sources are eliminated in the ideal
condition. In practice, the linewidth of an oscillating laser mode is much larger than the
Schawlow–Townes linewidth, though generally much smaller than the cold-cavity linewidth,
because it is broadened by many mechanisms such as the noise from pump power fluctuations,
mechanical vibrations, and temperature fluctuations of the laser.

9.4 LASER POWER

..............................................................................................................
In this section, we consider the output power of a laser. Because the situation of a multimode
laser can be quite complicated due to mode competition, we consider for simplicity only a CW
laser that oscillates in a single longitudinal and transverse mode. The parameters mentioned in
this section are not labeled with mode indices because all of them are clearly associated with the
only oscillating mode. The simple case of a Fabry–Pérot cavity that contains an isotropic gain
medium with a filling factor of Γ as shown in Fig. 9.1 is considered. To illustrate the general
concepts, we consider the situation when the gain medium is uniformly pumped so that the
entire gain medium has a spatially independent gain coefficient.
For the single oscillating mode of the Fabry–Pérot laser considered here, the round-trip gain
factor G is that given by (9.5), and the cavity decay rate γc defined by (6.23) is that given by
(6.46). Therefore,

G2 ¼ exp ð2Γgl  γc TÞ: (9.16)

Because G2 is the net amplification factor of the intracavity field energy, which is proportional
to the intracavity photon number, in a round-trip time T of the laser cavity, we can define an

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 286 Laser Oscillation

intracavity energy growth rate, or intracavity photon growth rate, Γg, for the oscillating laser
mode through the relation

G2 ¼ exp ½ðΓg  γc ÞT: (9.17)

We find, by comparing (9.17) with (9.16), the gain parameter of the gain medium:
2gl cg
g¼ ¼ : (9.18)
T n
By comparing (6.46) with (9.9), we find that
2g th l cg
γc ¼ Γ ¼ Γ th : (9.19)
T n
Note that while the unit of g and g th is per meter, the unit of g and γc is per second.
The relation in (9.18) translates the gain coefficient that characterizes spatially dependent
amplification through the gain medium of a propagating intracavity laser field into an intra-
cavity energy growth rate that characterizes the temporal growth of the energy in a laser mode.
The relation in (9.19) clearly indicates that the threshold intracavity energy growth rate for laser
oscillation is the cavity decay rate:
Γgth ¼ γc : (9.20)
This relation can also be obtained by applying the threshold condition of G ¼ 1 to the relation in
(9.17). It is easy to understand because for a laser mode to oscillate, the growth of intracavity
photons in that mode through amplification by the gain medium has to completely compensate for
the decay of photons caused by all the loss mechanisms. Therefore, we shall call the energy growth
rate Γg and the cavity decay rate γc , both of which are specific to a laser mode, the gain parameter
and the loss parameter, respectively, of the laser mode. Note that the gain parameter Γg of the laser
mode is reduced by the filling factor Γ from the gain parameter g of the gain medium.
By using temporal growth and decay rates instead of spatial gain and loss coefficients to
describe the characteristics of a laser, we are in effect moving from a spatially distributed
description of the laser to a lumped-device description. In the lumped-device description, a laser
mode is considered an integral entity with its spatial characteristics effectively integrated into
the parameters Γg and γc . The detailed spatial characteristics of the mode are irrelevant and are
lost in this description. Therefore, instead of the intensity of the oscillating laser field, we have
to consider the intracavity photon density, S, of the oscillating laser mode. For a Fabry–Pérot
laser that contains a gain medium of a filling factor Γ so that the average refractive index inside
the cavity is n ¼ Γn þ ð1  ΓÞn0 as defined in (6.3), the average intracavity photon density of
the laser mode is
nI
S¼ , (9.21)
chv
where I is the spatially averaged intracavity intensity and hv is the photon energy of the
oscillating laser mode.
Because the gain parameter g is directly proportional to the gain coefficient g of the gain
medium, the relation between the unsaturated gain parameter Γg0 and the saturated gain

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 9.4 Laser Power 287

parameter Γg of a laser mode in the lumped-device description can be obtained by converting

the relation between g 0 and g discussed in Section 9.3 through the relation in (9.18). Therefore,
for the gain parameter of a laser mode, we have
g0 Γg0
g¼ and Γg ¼ (9.22)
1 þ S=Ssat 1 þ S=Ssat
where
cg 0
g0 ¼ (9.23)
n
is the unsaturated gain parameter of the gain medium and
nI sat n
Ssat ¼ ¼ (9.24)
chv cτ s σ e
is the saturation photon density of the laser mode.
When a CW laser oscillates in the steady state, the value of Γg for the oscillating mode is
clamped at its threshold value of γc , just as the value of g is clamped at g th . Therefore, by setting
Γg to equal γc and using (9.22), we find that the intracavity photon density of a CW laser mode
in steady-state oscillation is
 
Γg0
S¼  1 Ssat ¼ ðr  1ÞSsat , for r  1: (9.25)
γc
The dimensionless pumping ratio r represents that a laser is pumped at r times its threshold. It is
defined as
Γg0 g 0
r¼ ¼ : (9.26)
γc g th
Assuming that the pumping efficiency is the same at transparency, at threshold, and at the
operating point, the pumping ratio can be expressed in terms of the pump power as

Pp  Ptrp
r¼ , (9.27)
Pth tr
p  Pp

where Ptrp is the pump power for the gain medium to reach transparency, Pth p is that for the laser to
reach its threshold, and Pp is the pump power at the operating point. Note that (9.25) is valid only
for r  1 when the laser oscillates because only then is the laser gain saturated. For r < 1, the laser
does not reach threshold. The laser cavity is then filled with spontaneous photons at a density that
is small in comparison to the high density of coherent photons when the laser oscillates at r  1.
From the intracavity photon density of the oscillating laser mode, we can easily find the total
intracavity energy contained in this mode:
U mode ¼ hvV mode S, (9.28)

where V mode is the volume of the oscillating mode. The mode volume can be found by
integrating the normalized intensity distribution of the mode over the three-dimensional

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 288 Laser Oscillation

space defined by the laser cavity; it is usually a fraction of the volume of the cavity. The
output power of the laser is simply the coherent optical energy emitted from the laser per
second. Therefore, it is simply the product of the mode energy and the output-coupling rate,
γout , of the cavity:

Pout ¼ γout U mode ¼ γout hvV mode S ¼ ðr  1Þγout hvV mode Ssat : (9.29)

The output-coupling rate is also called the output-coupling loss parameter because it contrib-
utes to the total loss of a laser cavity; it is a fraction of the total loss parameter γc . One can
indeed write γc ¼ γi þ γout , where γi is the internal loss of the laser that does not contribute to
the output coupling of the laser power.
As an example, for the Fabry–Pérot laser that has γc given by
 
c 1 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
γc ¼ α  ln R1 R2 (9.30)
n l
as expressed in (6.46), we have the internal loss given by γi ¼ cα=n and the output-coupling
loss given by
c pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi c pffiffiffiffiffi c pffiffiffiffiffi
γout ¼  ln R1 R2 ¼  ln R1  ln R2 ¼ γout, 1 þ γout, 2 , (9.31)
nl nl nl
where
c pffiffiffiffiffi c pffiffiffiffiffi
γout;1 ¼  ln R1 and γout, 2 ¼  ln R2 (9.32)
nl nl
are the output-coupling losses of mirror 1 and mirror 2, respectively. In this case, γout is the total
output-coupling loss through both mirrors. Therefore, Pout given in (9.29) is the total output
power emitted through both mirrors. For the output power emitted through each mirror, we find
that
γout, 1 γ
Pout;1 ¼ U mode γout, 1 ¼ Pout and Pout, 2 ¼ U mode γout, 2 ¼ out, 2 Pout : (9.33)
γout γout
It is convenient to define the saturation output power as

Psat
out ¼ γout hvV mode Ssat : (9.34)
Using the definition of Ssat in (9.24), it can be shown that
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Psat
out ¼ Psat ln R1 R2 , (9.35)
where Psat is the saturation power of the gain medium found by integrating I sat over the cross-
sectional area of the gain medium. Combining (9.29) with (9.34), we can express the output
laser power in terms of Psat
out as

Pout ¼ ðr  1ÞPsat
out : (9.36)

Note that Psatout is not the level at which the output power of a laser saturates. Its physical
meaning can be easily seen from (9.35) and (9.36). From (9.35), we find that the output power
of a laser is Psat
out when the intracavity laser power is at the level Psat of the gain medium. From

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 9.4 Laser Power 289

(9.36), we find that Pout ¼ Psat sat

out when r ¼ 2; in other words, a laser has an output power of Pout
when it is pumped at twice its threshold level.

EXAMPLE 9.6
The Nd:YAG gain medium of the laser described in Examples 9.1 and 9.2 has a saturation
intensity of I sat ¼ 17:3 MW m2 , which stays almost constant for an unsaturated gain coeffi-
cient g 0 over the range from 0 to 10 m1. With a cavity length of l ¼ 10 cm, the two cavity
mirrors are chosen such that at the λ ¼ 1:064 μm laser wavelength, the TEM00 Gaussian mode
has a beam waist spot size of w0 ¼ 500 μm located at the center of the Nd:YAG rod, which has
a length of lg ¼ 3 cm. (a) Find the pumping ratio r and the corresponding unsaturated gain
coefficient g 0 required for the laser mode to have an output power of 100 mW. (b) If the laser is
pumped at a level for an unsaturated gain coefficient of g 0 ¼ 10 m1 , what is the pumping ratio
and the output power of the laser mode?

Solution:
For the TEM00 Gaussian mode that has a beam waist spot size of w0 ¼ 500 μm in the Nd:YAG
rod, the Rayleigh range, from (3.69), is

πnw20 π  1:82  ð500  106 Þ2

zR ¼ ¼ m ¼ 1:34 m:
λ 1:064  106
Because zR  l > lg , the beam spot stays constant throughout the cavity. Therefore, the mode
volume of the oscillating laser mode is

πw20 π  ð500  106 Þ2

V mode ¼ Al ¼ l¼  10  102 m3 ¼ 3:93  108 m3 :
2 2
The weighted average refractive index of the laser mode is n ¼ 1:246, from Example 9.2. The
photon energy for λ ¼ 1:064 μm is hv ¼ 1:165 eV, from Example 9.5. With a saturation
intensity of I sat ¼ 17:3 MW m2 , the saturation photon density of the oscillating laser mode is

nI sat 1:246  17:3  106

Ssat ¼ ¼ m3 ¼ 3:85  1017 m3 :
chv 3  108  1:165  1:6  1019
The output coupling rate is

c pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3  108 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1

γout ¼  ln R1 R2 ¼   ln 0:9  1 s ¼ 1:27  108 s1 :
nl 1:246  10  102
The saturation output power is found using (9.34):

Psat
out ¼ γout hvV mode Ssat ¼ 358 mW:

(a) For an output power of Pout ¼ 100 mW, we find by using (9.36) that the required pumping
ratio is
Pout 100
r ¼1þ ¼1þ ¼ 1:28:
Psat
out 358

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 290 Laser Oscillation

From Example 9.1, the threshold gain coefficient is g th ¼ 2:09 m1 . Therefore, by (9.26),
the unsaturated gain coefficient at this pumping ratio is

g 0 ¼ rg th ¼ 1:28  2:09 m1 ¼ 2:68 m1 :

(b) When the laser is pumped to have an unsaturated gain coefficient of g 0 ¼ 10 m1 , by (9.26)
the pumping ratio is

g0 10
r¼ ¼ ¼ 4:78:
g th 2:09
Therefore, from (9.36), the output laser power is
3
Pout ¼ ðr  1ÞPsat
out ¼ ð4:78  1Þ  358  10 W ¼ 1:35 W:

To explicitly express the output laser power as a function of the pump power, it is necessary
to specify the pumping mechanism and the pumping geometry. Irrespective of the pumping
details, it is generally true that a laser has zero coherent output power but only fluorescence
before it reaches threshold, whereas its coherent output power grows linearly with the pump
power above threshold before nonlinearity occurs at a high pump power. Upon reaching the
threshold, the output laser field also shows dramatic spectral narrowing that accompanies the
start of laser oscillation. According to (9.14) and the discussion following it, the linewidth of an
oscillating laser mode continues to narrow with increasing laser power as the laser is pumped
higher above threshold. The reason is that above threshold the coherent stimulated emission
increases with the pumping ratio, whereas the spontaneous emission, which is proportional to
the population of the upper laser level, is clamped at its threshold value. These are the unique
characteristics that distinguish a laser from other types of light sources, such as fluorescent light
emitters and luminescent light sources. However, a real laser does not have such exact ideal
characteristics, mainly because of the presence of spontaneous emission and nonlinearities in
the gain medium.
Figure 9.5 shows the typical characteristics of the output power Pout of a single-mode laser as
a function of the pump power Pp . The linear relation between Pout and Pp is a consequence of
applying the linear relation between g 0 and Pp to (9.26) for (9.27). As discussed in Section 8.3,
the linear relation between g 0 and Pp is itself an approximation near the transparency point of a
gain medium. As the pump power increases to a sufficiently high level, the unsaturated gain
coefficient of a medium cannot continue to increase linearly with the pump power because of
the depletion of the ground-level population. Therefore, we should expect that the output power
of a laser will not continue its linear increase with the pump power but will increase less than
linearly with the pump power at high pumping levels. On the other hand, once the gain medium
of a laser is pumped so that its upper laser level begins to be populated, it emits spontaneous
photons regardless of whether the laser is oscillating or not. Clearly, the output power of a laser
that is pumped below threshold is not exactly zero because fluorescence from spontaneous
emission is already emitted from the laser before the laser reaches threshold. Though this

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 9.4 Laser Power 291

Figure 9.5 Typical characteristics of the output

power of a single-mode laser as a function of the
pump power.

fluorescence is incoherent and its power is generally small for a practical laser, it is significant
for a laser below and right at threshold. Above threshold, it is the major source of incoherent
noise for the coherent field of the laser output.
The overall efficiency of a laser, known as the power conversion efficiency, is
Pout
ηc ¼ : (9.37)
Pp

The approximately linear dependence of the laser output power on the pump power above
threshold leads to the concept of the differential power conversion efficiency, also known as the
slope efficiency, of a laser, defined as
dPout
ηs ¼ : (9.38)
dPp

Referring to the laser power characteristics shown in Fig. 9.5, the threshold of a laser can usually
be lowered by increasing the finesse of the laser cavity, thus lowering the values of γc and γout , but
only at the expense of reducing the differential power conversion efficiency of the laser. In the
linear region of the laser power characteristics, ηs is clearly a constant that is independent of the
operating point of the laser. By contrast, ηc increases with the pump power, but ηc is always
smaller than ηs in the linear region. At high pumping levels where the laser output power does not
increase linearly with the pump power because of nonlinearity, ηs is no longer independent of the
operating point. It can even become smaller than ηc in certain unfavorable situations.

EXAMPLE 9.7
The Nd:YAG laser considered in Example 9.5 is optically pumped from two sides of the laser
rod with two diode laser arrays at the 808 nm pump wavelength. Because the Nd:YAG laser is a
four-level system, its transparency pump power is zero, Ptrp ¼ 0. Furthermore, the pumping
ratio is approximately proportional to the pump power: r / Pp . It is found that the pump power

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 292 Laser Oscillation

required to reach the pumping ratio for an unsaturated gain coefficient of g 0 ¼ 10 m1 is
Pp ¼ 16:5 W. Use the data obtained in Example 9.6 to answer the following questions. (a) Find
the threshold pump power. (b) Find the conversion efficiency and the slope efficiency when the
laser has an output power of Pout ¼ 100 mW as in Example 9.6(a). (c) Find the conversion
efficiency and the slope efficiency when the laser has an unsaturated gain coefficient of
g 0 ¼ 10 m1 as in Example 9.6(b).

Solution:
From Example 9.6(b), r = 4.78 for g 0 ¼ 10 m1 . Therefore, r ¼ 4:78 for Pp ¼ 16:5 W.
Because Nd:YAG is a four-level system, it is transparent without pumping. Therefore,
Ptrp ¼ 0. From (9.27), we have

Pp  Ptrp Pp
r¼ ¼ ,
Pth
p  Ptrp Pth
p

and

dr r 4:78 1
¼ ¼ W ¼ 0:29 W1 :
dPp Pp 16:5

(a) The laser reaches its threshold when the pumping ratio is r th ¼ 1. Therefore, the threshold
pump power is

rth 1
Pth
p ¼ W¼ W ¼ 3:45 W:
0:29 0:29
(b) From Example 9.6(a), we find that r ¼ 1:28 for Pout ¼ 100 mW. At this pumping ratio,

Pp ¼ rPth
p ¼ 1:28  3:45 W ¼ 4:42 W:

Therefore, from (9.37), the power conversion efficiency is

Pout 100  103

ηc ¼ ¼ ¼ 2:26%:
Pp 4:42

From Example 9.6, we have Psat

out ¼ 358 mW. Using (9.38) and (9.36), we find that the
slope efficiency is

dPout dr sat
ηs ¼ ¼ P ¼ 0:29  358  103 ¼ 10:4%:
dPp dPp out

(c) When the laser is pumped with a pump power of Pp ¼ 16:5 W to give an unsaturated gain
coefficient of g 0 ¼ 10 m1 , we find r = 4.78 and Pout ¼ 1:35 W from Example 9.6(b).
Therefore, from (9.37), the power conversion efficiency is

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 Problems 293

Pout 1:35
ηc ¼ ¼ ¼ 8:18%:
Pp 16:5

The slope efficiency is the same as that found in (b):

dPout dr sat
ηs ¼ ¼ P ¼ 0:29  358  103 ¼ 10:4%:
dPp dPp out

Problems
9.1.1 A He–Ne laser has a Fabry–Pérot cavity formed by two mirrors of reflectivities R1 ¼
95% and R2 ¼ 100% at its laser wavelength of λ ¼ 632:8 nm. The cavity length is
l ¼ 32 cm. The effective refractive index of the He–Ne gas is n  1. The TEM00
Gaussian laser mode has a distributed optical loss of α ¼ 0:05 m1 . Find the threshold
gain coefficient of this laser mode.
9.1.2 An optical-fiber laser emitting at λ ¼ 1:53 μm has a ring cavity as shown in Fig. 6.1(d). It
has one input–output coupler that has a coupling efficiency of η ¼ 10%. The fiber loop
has a total length of l ¼ 10 m, which contains a gain section of a length lg ¼ 1 m. The
effective index of the fiber laser mode is n ¼ 1:47 and the distributed loss is
α ¼ 10 dB km1 . What is the threshold gain coefficient of this laser mode?
9.1.3 A GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor laser emitting at λ ¼ 860 nm has a Fabry–Pérot cavity
formed by two flat, cleaved surfaces of reflectivities R1 ¼ R2 ¼ 32% for the TE0 mode of
the GaAs/AlGaAs waveguide. The gain region is the GaAs waveguide core, which is
pumped uniformly throughout the cavity length such that the cavity and the gain medium
have the same length of l ¼ lg ¼ 350 μm. The laser oscillates in the single transverse TE0
waveguide mode, which has a confinement factor of Γ ¼ 0:3 defined by the overlap
factor of the TE0 mode intensity profile with the waveguide core gain region. The
distributed loss is α ¼ 25 cm1 . Find the threshold gain coefficient of this laser mode.
If one of the cleaved cavity surfaces is optically coated for 100% reflectivity, what is the
threshold gain coefficient?
9.2.1 The optical gain of a homogeneously broadened laser is contributed by a discrete optical
transition between two atomic energy levels at a transition resonance frequency of ω21 .
A longitudinal mode q of the laser has its cold-cavity frequency tuned to the transition
resonance frequency such that ωcq ¼ ω21 . When the laser is pumped above the threshold
for this mode to oscillate, what is the oscillating frequency of the laser? How much is the
frequency shift due to mode pulling?
9.2.2 The optical gain in a semiconductor laser medium is contributed by excess electrons and
holes in the conduction and valence bands, respectively, of the semiconductor. The gain
is determined by the excess carrier concentration N, which is the density of the

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 294 Laser Oscillation

electron–hole pairs in excess of the thermal-equilibrium concentrations of electrons and

holes. As a result, the relationship between the real and imaginary parts of the resonant
susceptibility is not simply the Lorentzian function that characterizes a discrete atomic
transition. Nevertheless, an optical gain still causes a change in the refractive index of the
medium. This effect is usually described by an experimentally measured antiguidance
factor, also known as the linewidth enhancement factor, defined as

∂n0 =∂N 2ω ∂n0 =∂N 4π ∂n0 =∂N

b¼ ¼  ¼  , (9.39)
∂n00 =∂N c ∂g=∂N λ ∂g=∂N
where n0 and n00 are, respectively, the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index
of the medium, and g is the gain coefficient. A GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor laser
emitting at λ ¼ 850 nm has a Fabry–Pérot cavity, which is pumped uniformly so
that the cavity and the gain medium have the same length of l ¼ lg ¼ 300 μm. The
gain medium has an antiguidance factor of b ¼ 3:5. The effective refractive index is
n ¼ 3:65 when the laser medium is pumped to transparency at λ ¼ 850 nm. The laser
is pumped to give a gain coefficient of g ¼ 5  104 m1 . Besides shifting the fre-
quency of each longitudinal mode, the mode-pulling effect caused by the antiguidance
factor changes the longitudinal mode frequency spacing. Find the frequency shift of a
longitudinal mode at the λ ¼ 850 nm laser wavelength. Find the change in the longi-
tudinal mode frequency spacing.
9.3.1 A GaAs/AlGaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting semiconductor laser emitting at λ ¼
850 nm has a very short cavity. Its gain region is composed of a few thin quantum wells,
and its reflective mirrors are distributed Bragg reflectors of periodic structures. For the
longitudinal mode frequencies, the effective physical length of the cavity is leff ¼ 1:2 μm
and the effective refractive index is neff ¼ 3:52. The laser is pumped to give a gain
bandwidth of Δλg ¼ 48 nm above the laser threshold. How many longitudinal modes
oscillate?
9.3.2 A He–Ne laser has a Doppler-broadened gain bandwidth of Δνg ¼ 1:5 GHz at its laser
wavelength of λ ¼ 632:8 nm. The laser has a cavity length of l ¼ 32 cm.
(a) It is pumped at a level such that the peak unsaturated gain coefficient is four times the
threshold gain coefficient: g max
0 ¼ 4g th . How many longitudinal modes have their
unsaturated gain coefficients pumped above the threshold? How many longitudinal
modes oscillate?
(b) If a longitudinal mode frequency is tuned to the frequency of the gain peak, what is
the value of g max
0 for the laser to oscillate only in this mode?
9.3.3 An Er:fiber laser emitting at λ ¼ 1:53 μm has a cold-cavity linewidth of Δνc ¼ 520 kHz.
It is doped with an Er3þ ion concentration of N t ¼ 2:2  1024 m3 . At λ ¼ 1:53 μm, the
absorption cross section is σ a ¼ 5:7  1025 m2 , and the emission cross section is
σ e ¼ 7:9  1025 m2 . The gain coefficients of its oscillating modes are saturated at
g ¼ 0:25 m1 . The population density of the upper laser level for this gain coefficient
can be found using (8.42). What is the minimum possible linewidth set by the Schawlow–
Townes limit for an oscillating laser mode that has an output power of Pout ¼ 1 mW?

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 Problems 295

9.4.1 A Ti:sapphire laser consists of a Ti:sapphire crystal of a length lg ¼ 2 cm in a Fabry–

Pérot cavity, which has a physical length of l ¼ 16 cm defined by two mirrors of
reflectivities R1 ¼ 100% and R2 ¼ 95% at the laser emission wavelength of
λ ¼ 800 nm. The TEM00 Gaussian mode defined by the cavity has a beam waist spot
size of w0 ¼ 150 μm located at the center of the Ti:sapphire crystal, which has a
refractive index of n ¼ 1:76. The end surfaces of the crystal are antireflection coated to
eliminate undesirable losses. At the λ ¼ 800 nm laser wavelength, the Ti:sapphire crystal
has an emission cross section of σ e ¼ 3:4  1023 m2 and an absorption cross section of
σ a  8  1026 m2 . Over the range of laser operation considered here, the saturation
lifetime can be taken as τ s  τ 2 ¼ 3:2 μs. The distributed loss of the laser cavity,
including the absorption of the Ti:sapphire crystal at λ ¼ 800 nm, is α ¼ 0:1 m1 . The
laser is optically pumped at the pump wavelength of λp ¼ 532 nm.
(a) Find the threshold gain coefficient of this laser.
(b) Find the saturation output power of this laser.
(c) What are the pumping ratio and the unsaturated gain coefficient required for the laser
to have an output power of Pout ¼ 1 W?
(d) The transparency pump power of the laser is Ptrp ¼ 1:4 W, and the threshold pump
power is Pthp ¼ 5:0 W. What is the pump power that is required for Pout ¼ 1 W?
(e) What are the power conversion efficiency and the slope efficiency when the laser has
an output power of Pout = 1 W?
9.4.2 The Ti:sapphire laser described in Problem 9.4.1 is pumped to have an unsaturated gain
coefficient of g 0 ¼ 5 m1 .
(a) What are the pumping ratio and the pump power?
(b) Find the output laser power at this pumping level.
(c) What are the power conversion efficiency and the slope efficiency at this
operating point?
9.4.3 A semiconductor laser is pumped by current injection. The injected current generates
excess electron–hole pairs in the active region of the laser. The excess electron–hole pairs
act as the source of the optical gain. When the details of the laser structure and the
parameters of the gain medium are known, the power and efficiency of a semiconductor
laser can be analyzed as discussed in Section 9.4. Alternatively and equivalently, the
output power of a semiconductor laser can be found by considering that one photon is
emitted when an electron–hole pair recombines radiatively. Thus, for a semiconductor
laser,
γout hv
Pout ¼ ηinj ðI  I th Þ, (9.40)
γc e
where ηinj is the current injection efficiency, γout is the output coupling rate, γc is the
cavity decay rate, hv is the laser photon energy, e is the electronic charge, I is the
injection current, and I th is the threshold injection current for the laser to start oscillating.
The injection efficiency ηinj is the fraction of the total injection current that actually

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 296 Laser Oscillation

contributes to the generation of useful electron–hole pairs in the active region of the laser.
If the bias voltage of the laser is V, the power conversion efficiency is
 
Pout Pout γout hv I th
ηc ¼ ¼ ¼ ηinj 1 , (9.41)
Pp VI γc eV I

and the slope efficiency is

dPout dPout γ hv
ηs ¼ ¼ ¼ ηinj out : (9.42)
dPp VdI γc eV

Now, consider the GaAs/AlGaAs laser described in Problem 9.1.3 but with R1 ¼ 1 and
R2 ¼ 0:32. The effective refractive index of the laser mode is n ¼ 3:63. The injection
efficiency is ηinj ¼ 0:7, the threshold current is I th ¼ 20 mA, and the bias voltage is
V ¼ 2 V.
(a) Find the output laser power for an injection current of I ¼ 40 mA.
(b) What are the power conversion efficiency and the slope efficiency at this
operating point?

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