Single-mode-laser phase dynamics

Abstract

We study the phase dynamics of a single-mode ring laser described by the complex Maxwell-Bloch equations. We identify three reference-frame frequencies and determine the properties of the field dynamics observed in these frames. In one of these reference frames, the phase jumps are always equal to \ensuremath{\pi}, irrespective of the detuning, while in another reference frame quasiperiodic field portraits reduce to periodic field portraits. We also apply the recent theory of Ning and Haken [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2109 (1992)] to prove that the laser phase can be decomposed into a geometrical component that is frame invariant and a dynamical component that is frame dependent.