Abstract

Hillman et al.¹ reported a series of thresholds in which a cw dye laser with a high Q-cavity discontinuously changes the power and the spectrum of its output. These original observations are now extended to investigate the effect of cavity Q, detuning from line center, and other parameters. The regime of higher pump intensities is also investigated. A self-consistent solution to the Maxwell-Bloch equations is presented which describes the laser field in terms of an envelope propagating without change around the cavity. This theory predicts the observed spectral splitting as a function of output power.

© 1985 Optical Society of America