Effects of detuning on time-dependent solutions in a two-level model for the laser with a saturable absorber

Abstract

Recent theoretical treatments of the laser with a saturable absorber have utilized multilevel rate equation models with considerable success in simulating experimental results.1 Such treatments do not incorporate the detuning of the cavity or of the absorber atom line center from the amplifying atom line center. This additional complication may have a significant effect on the dynamics of the system, as has already been strongly suggested by an examination of the stability of the steady states of a semi-classical model which assumes atoms with only two levels.2 This paper extends this work on the two-level model into the timedependent regime. The results are obtained from a particularly convenient transformation of the semiclassical time-dependent equations for a homogeneously broadened, two-level atom model of the laser with a saturable absorber.