A system theoretic approach to the stability of passively Q-switched lasers

Author

Shahruz, S.M. ; Mahavaraha, T.A.

Author_Institution

Berkeley Eng. Res. Inst., CA, USA

Volume

46

Issue

4

fYear

1999

fDate

4/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

512

Lastpage

517

Abstract

The rate equations of passively Q-switched lasers are considered. These equations represent the dynamics of the photon number in the laser cavity, the population inversion of the laser, and the ground-state population of the saturable absorber when excited by an input (pumping rate). In this work it is shown that for bounded inputs, the laser output is bounded. Furthermore, it is shown that when the input is switched off, the laser output converges to zero asymptotically. These stability results show that passively Q-switched lasers can operate safely

Keywords

Lyapunov methods; Q-switching; laser stability; laser theory; population inversion; bounded inputs; bounded laser output; ground-state population; laser cavity; passively Q-switched lasers; photon number; population inversion; pumping rate; rate equations; safe operation; saturable absorber; stability; Circuits; Equations; Laser beam cutting; Laser excitation; Laser feedback; Laser radar; Laser stability; Laser theory; Optical pulse generation; Pump lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Circuits and Systems I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7122

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/81.754854

Filename

754854