Abstract

Any conceivable configuration which involves the propagation of a laser beam in a (single-mode) fiber results in a mixing between the main beam and the Rayleigh scattering from the thermodynamically frozen inhomogeneities. This mixing converts phase fluctuations in the output of the laser to intensity fluctuations.¹ We have solved the laser Langevin-oscillator equation for the phase statistics of the laser field and then applied the result to a statistical noise analysis of the scattering problem in the fiber. The result is a set of expressions for the total scattered power under a variety of experimental configurations and for the spectrum of the intensity fluctuations.

© 1990 Optical Society of America