Five Layer Optical Maser Amplification

The optical maser is treated in the manner of a Fabry-Perot resonator with an active medium. Five layers are considered: air, reflector, active medium (ruby), reflector, and air. General equations are derived using the method of boundary value problems in which it is assumed that incident coherent radiation falls normally on the surface. It is suggested that the presence of lossless one-quarter wavelength reflectors will enhance the amplification of the device in that less pumping may be required for a given length of ruby. The role of the reflectors in oscillation conditions is shown to be of importance. Methods are indicated for the calculation of amplitude and phase for an idealized amplifier.