PHOTON DISTRIBUTIONS OF LASERS WITH 1ST-ORDER PHASE-TRANSITION ANALOGIES

The photon-number distributions for a laser with a saturable-absorber and a dye laser are obtained by extensions of the Scully and Lamb optical-maser theory. The results are shown to be in correspondence with those of Lugiato et al. for the saturable-absorber laser and with those of Schaefer and Willis for the dye laser. Moreover, they are in a form which clearly shows the relation between the saturable-absorber laser and the dye laser. The thermodynamic potentials for the first-order phase-transition analogy are calculated and are found to be of the form predicted by Scott, Sargent, and Cantrell using semiclassical equations. © 1979 The American Physical Society.