Pulse-energy statistics in stimulated Raman scattering

Abstract

We calculate the probability distribution P(W) for the energy W of pulses generated by transient stimulated Raman scattering and find that 100% macroscopic fluctuations are predicted. In the limit of large numbers of Stokes photons we find that P(W) is essentially exponential, implying that the most probable value for Stokes pulse energy is near zero. The macroscopic energy fluctuations, whose origin is quantum mechanical, may impose a fundamental limitation on the stability of the Raman generation process.