Abstract

Recently Weiss and Brock observed Lorenz-type chaos in the 81.5μm emission from an optically-pumped ¹⁴NH₃ laser¹. The theoretical interpretation of the experimental results is an open question, however. In fact, the Lorenz-Haken model refers to incoherently pumped lasers with homogeneously-broadened two-level active media². Models based on (at least) a three-level system are needed to describe optically-pumped lasers, whose dynamics is known to reduce to that of the Lorez-Haken model under certain limiting conditions³. But these conditions are not met in the ¹⁴NH₃ laser, and indeed theoretical predictions of a model for this laser, which considered a homogeneously-broadened three-level active medium⁴, revealed striking differences with the experimental observations¹.

© 1988 Optical Society of America