FIELD-EQUATION APPROXIMATIONS AND AMPLIFICATION IN HIGH-GAIN LASERS - NUMERICAL RESULTS

It has recently been shown that a field-equation time-derivative approximation that is commonly used in studies of laser-oscillator dynamics is not necessary and can lead to significant errors for some lasers. A related space-derivative approximation is widely used in studies of steady-state laser amplifiers. A more rigorous amplifier formalism is developed here, and the results are exact solutions of Maxwell's equations. The improved model predicts a spatial instability, single mirror oscillation, and other interesting field behavior.