The stability of optical cavity maser power
The power stability of optical masers is discussed in terms of the stability of the cavity fields. Quantum transport equations of non-Markovian nature appropriate for the description of partially coherent maser cavity processes are derived and the Liapounoff stability of solutions of these coupled non-linear equations are examined for the purely incoherent and partially coherent cases. It is found that the influence of even a small “coherence time” produces significant changes in the stability of the maser operating conditions and macroscopic (incoherent) rate equations are inadequate under such circumstances.