Induced photon statistics in three-level lasers
T. Yu. Golubeva, Yu. M. Golubev, D. A. Ivanov · Physical Review A · 2007
The statistical properties of light emitted by a three-level laser are theoretically investigated. In the model considered the three-level medium is coherently excited by another laser having arbitrary photon statistics. It is shown that under certain conditions the photon statistics of the three-level laser is determined by that of the exciting laser. This feature is referred to as induced photon statistics. It is proposed to use this phenomenon to analyze the statistics of a laser involved in a feedback process. Arranging an experiment in a way such that the laser of interest serves as a coherent pump for the probe three-level laser one is able to directly observe the statistics of the feedback-controlled laser by simply detecting the induced photon statistics in the three-level probe system. The analysis of the operation of such two-laser system presented demonstrates, in particular, that the feedback itself is unable to produce a nonclassical state of light which is in complete agreement with the conclusion of Wiseman and Milburn [Phys. Rev. A 49, 1350 (1994)].