A. Douglas Stone
Yale University
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
2:00 pm in SPL 38
What does the electric field look like inside a laser?
Abstract: A new theoretical approach is presented for find the spatial structure of the non-linear electric field inside a laser cavity above threshold. The appropriate basis for expanding the electric field is shown to be a biorthogonal basis of "constant flux" states which lead to a relatively simple self-consistent equation for the lasing modes. This equation can be regarded as a non-linear map with the solutions as the attractive fixed points of this map. The lasing frequencies are also determined by this map. Application of the theory is illustrated for a simple 1D "edge-emitting" laser, however it's most exciting application should be to complex lasers such as chaotic dielectric cavity lasers, random lasers and perhaps photonic bandgap lasers.