Computer simulation of laser photon fluctuations: Single-cavity laser results

In this second paper of a series I present statistical results obtained from computer simulated experiments in single-cavity semiconductor lasers and show that the probability distribution for realistic lasers are much broader than the Poisson distribution. When the gain saturation parameter is properly chosen, the computer simulated probability distributions agree very well with published experimental results. The following is a summary of the results. 1) Only the longitudinal laser mode at the center of the gain peak shows a probability distribution whose peak coincides with the average photon number. The modes to either side of the central mode have noise-like character with probability maxima at zero photon number. 2) The photon probability distribution narrows with increasing power output, increasing cavity mirror reflectivity and decreasing cavity length. 3) For the photon probability distribution to approach the Poisson limit, the cavity mirrors must have reflectivity near unity and the cavity losses must be very low. 4) Two modes symmetrically located at either side of the gain peak have a probability distribution that is constant from zero photon number to a cutoff value, because the modes compete for power and fluctuate widely. 5) Pulsed single-cavity lasers do not turn on consistently in the same longitudinal mode even if they are biased above threshold. 6) The performance of coupled-cavity (C
³
) and distributed feedback lasers (to be discussed in a subsequent paper) is much better than that of single-cavity lasers.