Formation mechanism of bifurcation in mode-locked class-B laser

Abstract

The random oscillations of many longitudinal modes are inevitable in both class −A and −B lasers due to their broadened atomic bandwidths. The destructive superposition of electric field components that are incoherently oscillating at the different longitudinal modes can be converted into a constructive one by using the mode-locking technique. Here, the Maxwell—Bloch equations of motion are solved for a three-mode class-B laser under the mode-locking conditions. The results indicate that the cavity oscillating modes are shifted by changing the laser pumping rate. On the other hand, the frequency components of cavity electric field simultaneously form the various bifurcations. These bifurcations satisfy the well-known mode-locking conditions as well. The atomic population inversion forms only one bifurcation, which is responsible for shaping the cavity electric field bifurcations.