APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 79 » Issue 22

Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 4357 - 4360 (1997)

Excess Quantum Noise due to Nonorthogonal Polarization Modes

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A. M. van der Lee, N. J. van Druten, A. L. Mieremet, M. A. van Eijkelenborg, Å. M. Lindberg, M. P. van Exter, and J. P. Woerdman
Huygens Laboratory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9504, Leiden, The Netherlands

Received 7 August 1997

We show that the quantum-limited linewidth of a laser can be enhanced when the polarization eigenmodes of the laser resonator are nonorthogonal. For the theoretical description of this phenomenon we introduce a simple coupled two-mode model. Experimentally, we observed an enhancement of the quantum noise by a factor of 60 in a He-Xe gas laser.


©1997 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v79/p4357
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4357
PACS: 42.50.Lc, 42.55.Lt, 42.60.Da

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