FM laser oscillation - Theory and experiment

We consider a type of laser oscillation wherein the laser modes oscillate with approximately FM phases and nearly Bessel function amplitudes, and thereby comprise the sidebands of a frequency-modulated light signal. This type of FM oscillation is induced by an intracavity phase perturbation which is driven at a frequency which is approximately, but not exactly, that of the axial mode spacing. The resulting laser oscillation frequency may, in effect, be swept over the entire Doppler linewidth. A first order theory, some experimental results, and an interesting application are considered.