Rate-equation theory of sub-Poissonian laser light

Lasers essentially consist of single-mode optical cavities containing two-level atoms with a supply of energy called the pump and a sink of energy, perhaps an optical detector. The latter converts the light energy into a sequence of electrical pulses corresponding to photo-detection events. It was predicted in 1984 on the basis of Quantum Optics and verified experimentally shortly thereafter that when the pump is non-fluctuating the emitted light does not fluctuate much. Precisely, this means that the variance of the number of photo-detection events observed over a sufficiently long period of time is much smaller than the average number of events. Light having that property is said to be'sub-Poissonian'. The theory presented rests on the concept introduced by Einstein around 1905, asserting that matter may exchange energy with a wave at angular frequency ω only by multiples of ħω. The optical field energy may only vary by integral multiples of ħω as a result of matter quantization and conservation of energy. A number of important results relating to isolated optical cavities containing two-level atoms are first established on the basis of the laws of Statistical Mechanics. Next, the laser system with a pump and an absorber of radiation is treated. The expression of the photo-current spectral density found in that manner coincides with the Quantum Optics result. The concepts employed in this paper are intuitive and the algebra is elementary. The paper supplements a previous tutorial paper (J. Arnaud, Opt. Quantum. Electron., 27 1995) in establishing a connection between the theory of laser noise and Statistical Mechanics.