Intensity autocorrelation measurements and spontaneous FM phase locking in a multimode pulsed dye laser

Abstract

The intensity autocorrelation function of the output of a multilongitudinal-mode pulsed dye laser has been measured. Modeling of the results of these measurements suggests that our grazing-incidence dye laser can operate with various degrees of correlation between mode intensities and between mode phases. Two limiting types of behavior are found: When the mode intensities are correlated, the phases are random, and when the mode intensities are uncorrected, the phases are locked in an FM fashion. This result is found to be consistent with our previous study of the cross correlations between the individual mode intensities, in which we found that spatial hole burning in the standing-wave cavity influences the degree of competition and hence the degree of correlation between modes.