Abstract

It is well known that a single-mode homogeneously broadened laser destabilizes its emission only in extremely prohibitively restrictive operating conditions, namely, a bad cavity and a gain of 9 times above lasing threshold. Understandably, therefore, experimental realization of this has met with only limited success. Recently, however, Lippi et al.¹ have reported the occurrence of low frequency pulsations from a single-mode (TEM₀₀) cw CO₂ laser, the dynamics of which are described by two variables (the good cavity limit) and hence should give rise to stable cw operation under all acceptable parameter values in the plane wave approximation. These authors have shown that this instability has its origin in the spatial field structure along the transverse direction of the TEM₀₀ mode. Indeed, it was shown in the past that transverse effects do play a major role in determining the dynamics of both passive as well as active systems.

© 1990 Optical Society of America