Abstract

I have recently discovered that phase perturbations may destabilize the steady-state operation of gas lasers described by a single, standing- wave mode in resonance with a tuned cavity. The threshold of this instability may lie above or below that arising from amplitude perturbations^1,2; furthermore, it coincides with a bifurcation of the steady-state field intensity ℐ and frequency ν. Neither the instability nor the bifurcation is experienced by running-wave modes.

© 1985 Optical Society of America