Abstract

With the help of a fast digitizer, the probability distribution of the light intensity of a single-mode dye laser has been measured photoelectrically, for various working points of the laser, from well-below to well-above threshold. In the region below threshold the laser exhibits short spiking and a double-peaked probability distribution with large value at zero intensity. A plot of most probable vs mean light intensity shows a discontinuity suggestive of a first-order phase transition. The experimental results are compared with Monte Carlo solutions of the equations of motion, with both additive spontaneous emission noise and multiplicative Ornstein-Uhlenbeck pump noise, and reasonable agreement is found.

© 1986 Optical Society of America