# Quantum theory of excess noise

## Abstract

We analyze the excess noise in the framework of the conventional quantum theory of laser-like systems. Our calculation is conceptually simple and our result also shows a correction to the semi-classical result derived earlier.

In attenuators, amplifiers and laser systems, the noise of the signal is increased by the interaction with a reservoir. In usual laser systems this is reflected in the formula for the Schawlow-Townes linewidth  which provides a simple relation between the linewidth and the gain or loss of the system. Under certain conditions, however, the noise entering from the reservoir can exceed this minimum amount by a large factor — the so-called excess-noise or Petermann factor. The appearance of this factor was predicted by Petermann  in the context of gain-guided semiconductor lasers. Within a semi-classical theory , this concept was later generalized to other systems in quantum electronics.

However, for a general system a complete quantum mechanical derivation is still lacking. Most of the considerations so far include the quantum noise properties ad hoc into an otherwise classical theory. Only a few simple systems have been discussed quantum mechanically in a rigorous way .

During recent years, many interesting experiments have been carried out: The first experiments used cavities with large output coupling  enhancing the noise by a few times only. However, geometrically unstable laser cavities show excess-noise factors up to a few hundreds for both solid state lasers  and gas lasers . Also the coupling of the polarizations of the laser light  and the insertion of a small aperture  can lead to large excess noise.

We derive the noise properties of an amplifier starting from the usual quantum mechanical description of the radiation field. First we derive a multi-mode master equation for the amplification. This is done in a way analogous to the maser theory assuming a reservoir of excited atoms . Then we are able to define quasi modes of the total system which show noise enhanced by the so-called $`K`$-factor. Our calculation is conceptually simple and transparent; it applies to all linear systems. We derive a correction to the semi-classical theory of Ref. . We subsequently generalize our result by including damping which allows us to apply it to the case of a laser below or up to threshold. We explain the main features of the excess noise and discuss its properties. For the experimentally relevant cases, we show that our calculations justify the use of the ordinary semi-classical treatment of excess noise. Thus we refrain from providing any explicit physical realization of our abstract model. Such a calculation would, in all essential features, reproduce the calculations carried out in the various model systems discussed in the literature . In this paper we do not include the effects of nonlinear saturation which needs to be considered separately.

Here we briefly recall the standard expressions of the quantized electromagnetic field in order to define our notation. We use orthonormal real mode functions $`u_n(x)`$ of the electromagnetic field with frequency $`\omega _n`$ which fulfill the boundary conditions for the given configuration in the whole “universe” and satisfy the orthonormality relation

$$\frac{1}{V}d^3xu_n(x)u_m(x)=\delta _{nm},$$
(1)   
where $`V`$ is the volume of the whole space. Note that the mode function $`u_n(x)`$ is a vector including the polarization orientation and that we choose them to be real for convenience. The electric field operator  then reads

$$\widehat{E}(x)=\underset{n}{}\epsilon _nu_n(x)\left(\widehat{a}_n+\widehat{a}_n^{}\right),$$
(2)   
where $`\widehat{a}_n`$ and $`\widehat{a}_n^{}`$ are the usual creation and annihilation operators of the field excitations and the so-called vacuum field amplitude is

$$\epsilon _n=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}\omega _n}{2ϵ_0V}}.$$
(3)   
We assume an amplifier medium consisting of two level atoms. This model has frequently been used for the quantum treatment of laser systems . The atoms start in the upper level, interact independently with the field for a short time before they are repumped incoherently to the upper level. The master equation for the density operator of the field is then obtained by tracing out the atomic variables. To describe the interaction between the field and a single atom at position $`x`$, we use the interaction Hamiltonian

$$\widehat{\stackrel{~}{H}}=d\underset{n}{}\epsilon _nu_n(x)(\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\sigma }^{}+\widehat{a}_n\widehat{\sigma }^+),$$
(4)   
where $`\widehat{\sigma }^\pm `$ are the raising and lowering operators for the two atomic levels coupled by the dipole moment $`d`$. After a short interaction time $`\tau `$ the change of the reduced field density operator $`\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)`$, in the interaction picture, is given by

$`\delta \widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\tau ^2}{2\mathrm{}^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}\epsilon _n\epsilon _m[u_n(x)d][u_m(x)d]e^{i(\omega _n\omega _m)t}\left\{2\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\right\}`$ (6)   
$`+O(\tau ^3)`$   
for one atom. We now assume that the atoms are introduced uniformly distributed over a volume $`V^{}V`$ in the upper level at a rate $`R`$. In principle we could let $`R`$ depend on the position $`x`$ and the reservoir average could include an average over the orientation of the dipole moment $`d`$. Without such refinements, the rate of change of the ensemble averaged density operator is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)`$ $`=`$ $`R{\displaystyle \frac{1}{V^{}}}{\displaystyle d^3x\delta \widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)}`$ (7)   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}L_{m,n}e^{i(\omega _n\omega _m)t}\left\{2\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)\widehat{\stackrel{~}{\rho }}(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\right\},`$ (8)   
with the matrix elements

$$L_{m,n}=\frac{R\tau ^2}{\mathrm{}^2}\epsilon _n\epsilon _m\frac{1}{V^{}}d^3x[u_n(x)d][u_m(x)d].$$
(9)   
Transforming from the interaction picture to the laboratory frame we get

$$\frac{d}{dt}\widehat{\rho }(t)=\frac{1}{2}\underset{n,m}{}L_{m,n}\left\{2\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\right\}i\underset{n}{}\omega _n[\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{a}_n,\widehat{\rho }(t)].$$
(10)   
This multi-mode master equation with a symmetric matrix $`L_{m,n}`$ allows us to define the quasi modes and derive their noise properties in the following. Its important feature is the coupling between modes with different frequencies due to the reservoir.

We may use the same kind of model also to derive dissipative losses of the field if we assume a fraction of the reservoir atoms to be initially in the lower state. These can be introduced into the system with a distribution differing from that of the amplifying atoms. But we will focus now only on the linear amplifier and discuss the case with damping later.

We are looking for a mode operator $`\widehat{A}`$ which obeys

$$\frac{d}{dt}\widehat{A}=(\frac{\lambda }{2}i\mathrm{\Omega })\widehat{A}$$
(11)   
for an arbitrary field state. Here $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the real frequency and $`\lambda `$ is the real amplification rate. We write this mode operator in terms of the free field mode operators as

$$\widehat{A}=\underset{n}{}\epsilon _nc_n\widehat{a}_n$$
(12)   
with the expansion coefficients $`c_n`$. This transformation includes the vacuum-field amplitudes $`\epsilon _n`$ and we define $`=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}{2ϵ_0V}}`$, because then the classical field amplitudes $`\epsilon _n\widehat{a}_n`$ obey the same transformation. Inserting Eq. (11) into (12) we get an eigenvalue equation

$$\underset{n}{}\left(\frac{1}{2}L_{m,n}i\delta _{n,m}\omega _n\right)\frac{\epsilon _n}{\epsilon _m}c_n=(\frac{\lambda }{2}i\mathrm{\Omega })c_m$$
(13)   
for the non-Hermitian matrix $`\stackrel{~}{L}_{m,n}=(\frac{1}{2}L_{m,n}i\delta _{n,m}\omega _n)\frac{\epsilon _n}{\epsilon _m}`$. Here $`c_n^{(\nu )}`$ is the right eigenvector of $`\stackrel{~}{L}_{m,n}`$; the corresponding left eigenvector is $`\epsilon _n^2c_n^{(\nu )}`$ . The superscript $`\nu `$ distinguishes the different eigenvectors.

The only properties of the left and right eigenvectors of non-Hermitian matrices which we need for our analysis are their mutual orthogonality and completeness : The eigenvectors fulfill the orthogonality condition

$$\underset{n}{}\epsilon _n^2c_n^{(\nu )}c_n^{(\mu )}=\delta _{\nu ,\mu }\underset{n}{}\epsilon _n^2c_{n}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}$$
(14)   
and the completeness relation

$$\underset{\nu }{}\left(\frac{\epsilon _n^2c_n^{(\nu )}c_m^{(\nu )}}{_n^{}\epsilon _n^{}^2c_{n^{}}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}}\right)=\delta _{n,m}$$
(15)   
with $`_n^{}\epsilon _n^{}^2c_{n^{}}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}0`$. We can now uniquely define the set of quasi-mode operators as

$`\widehat{A}_\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{_\nu }}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}c_n^{(\nu )}\epsilon _n\widehat{a}_n`$ (16)   
with the vacuum field amplitude

$$_\nu =\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu }{2ϵ_0V}}.$$
(17)   
The inverse transformation is

$$\widehat{a}_n=\epsilon _n\underset{\nu }{}\frac{c_n^{(\nu )}}{_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}}_\nu \widehat{A}_\nu .$$
(18)   
Consequently the positive frequency part of the electric field operator is given by

$`\widehat{E}^{(+)}(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\epsilon _nu_n(x)\widehat{a}_n`$ (19)   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}_\nu \left({\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon _n^2c_n^{(\nu )}}{_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}}}u_n(x)\right)\widehat{A}_\nu `$ (20)   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\nu }{}}_\nu U_\nu (x)\widehat{A}_\nu .`$ (21)   
The quasi-mode eigenfunctions

$$U_\nu (x)=\underset{n}{}\frac{\epsilon _n^2c_n^{(\nu )}}{_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}}u_n(x)$$
(22)   
satisfy an orthogonality relation

$$\frac{1}{V}d^3xU_\nu (x)\overline{U}_\mu (x)=\delta _{\nu ,\mu }$$
(23)   
with their adjoint quasi-mode functions

$$\overline{U}_\nu (x)=\underset{n}{}c_n^{(\nu )}u_n(x).$$
(24)   
The quasi-mode functions have the norm

$$N_\nu ^2=\frac{1}{V}d^3xU_\nu (x)U_\nu ^{}(x)=\frac{_n\epsilon _n^4|c_n^{(\nu )}|^2}{\left|_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{(\nu )}{}_{}{}^{2}\right|^2}$$
(25)   
and their adjoints

$$\overline{N}_\nu ^2=\frac{1}{V}d^3x\overline{U}_\nu (x)\overline{U}_\nu ^{}(x)=\underset{n}{}|c_n^{(\nu )}|^2.$$
(26)   
From now on we only consider one quasi mode and drop the index $`\nu `$. This is well justified, because, after a long enough time, that quasi mode which has the largest amplification rate $`\lambda `$ is dominating in the sum Eq. (19). Thus all expectation values can be calculated with just this largest contribution.

Later we need the properties

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{_n\epsilon _n^2\omega _n|c_n|^2}{_n\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}=\frac{2ϵ_0V}{\mathrm{}}\frac{_n\epsilon _n^4|c_n|^2}{_n\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}$$
(27)   
and

$$\lambda =\frac{_{n,m}L_{n,m}\epsilon _n\epsilon _mc_n^{}c_m}{_n\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}$$
(28)   
which can be obtained from the real and imaginary parts of Eq. (13) after taking the scalar product with the vector $`\epsilon _m^2c_m^{}`$. Note that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the mean frequency with respect to the probabilities

$$p_n=\frac{\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}{_n^{}\epsilon _n^{}^2|c_n^{}|^2}.$$
(29)   
We calculate now the noise of the slowly-varying quadrature operator

$$\widehat{X}(x)=(U(x)\widehat{A}e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }t}+U^{}(x)\widehat{A}^{}e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }t})$$
(30)   
in a frame rotating with $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. After some straightforward calculation we get the time evolution of the noise

$$\frac{d}{dt}(\mathrm{\Delta }X(x))^2=\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta }X(x))^2+\lambda |U(x)|^2\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2.$$
(31)   
We have to compare this with the noise of the usual single-mode-amplifier master equation

$$\frac{d}{dt}\widehat{\rho }(t)=\frac{\lambda }{2}\left\{2\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}\widehat{a}\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}\widehat{a}^{}\right\}i\mathrm{\Omega }[\widehat{a}^{}\widehat{a},\widehat{\rho }(t)]$$
(32)   
for the mode frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, normalized mode function $`u(x)`$, and the vacuum field amplitude $`=\sqrt{\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }}{2ϵ_0V}}`$. In this case the noise is given by the equation

$$\frac{d}{dt}(\mathrm{\Delta }X(x))^2=\lambda (\mathrm{\Delta }X(x))^2+\lambda |u(x)|^2^2.$$
(33)   
Hence, after averaging over position in Eqs. (31) and (33) and using Eq. (25), we can read off the excess-noise factor

$`K`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N^2}{^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2={\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2_n\epsilon _n^4|c_n|^2}{^2\left|_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\right|^2}}`$ (34)   
$`=`$ $`\left|{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}{_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}}\right|^2.`$ (35)   
From the triangular inequality $`\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2|_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}|`$ follows $`K1`$. The peculiar mode coupling of the non-Hermitian eigenvalue equation (13) causes this enhancement of the reservoir noise entering the quasi mode.

We can now compare the result, Eq. (34), with the expression

$`\stackrel{~}{K}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d^3xU(x)U^{}(x)d^3x\overline{U}(x)\overline{U}^{}(x)}{\left|d^3xU(x)\overline{U}(x)\right|^2}}`$ (36)   
$`=`$ $`N^2\overline{N}^2={\displaystyle \frac{_n|c_n|^2_n\epsilon _n^4|c_n|^2}{\left|_m\epsilon _m^2c_{m}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\right|^2}}`$ (37)   
which has been derived from a semi-classical theory . We see that they are almost identical when we use Eqs. (23), (25) and (26). The ratio of the factors is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{K}}{K}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{^2_n|c_n|^2}{_n\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}}={\displaystyle \frac{_n|c_n|^2_n|c_n|^2\epsilon _n^4}{(_n|c_n|^2\epsilon _n^2)^2}}`$ (38)   
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }\overline{\left(1/\omega \right)}1+𝒪(\mathrm{\Delta }\omega /\mathrm{\Omega })^2`$ (39)   
with the mean inverse frequency $`\overline{\omega ^1}`$ with respect to the probabilities $`p_n`$ introduced above in Eq. (29). Here we have used the definitions of $`\epsilon _n`$, $``$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in Eqs. (3), (17) and (27). The quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\omega `$ is a measure of the bandwidth of the quasi mode in terms of the modes of the universe. From Eqs. (34) and (36) we see, by using Schwarz’ inequality, that $`K\stackrel{~}{K}`$. The correction to the semi-classical result is small for the optical frequency domain where the bandwidth ($`<10^{10}`$ Hz) is negligible with respect to the mean frequency ($`>10^{14}`$ Hz). But in the micro-wave regime (GHz) the correction may be essential.

We note that if the quasi-mode frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ was defined with respect to the weights $`|c_n|^2`$ instead of Eq. (29), the ratio Eq. (38) would be unity. Indeed, $`|c_n|^2`$ is the weight of the classical field amplitudes $`\epsilon _n\widehat{a}_n`$ in Eq. (12) and it is the weight of the universe modes $`u_n(x)`$ in the adjoint quasi-mode functions $`\overline{U}_\nu (x)`$ in Eq. (24). On the other hand, the weight of the universe modes in the quasi-mode functions in Eq. (22) is $`\epsilon _n^4|c_n|^2`$. But, Eq. (27) shows that the geometric mean of the two classical possibilities gives the proper distribution $`p_n`$ for the frequencies with the eigenfrequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as mean value.

As a next step we could derive damping for the quasi modes by considering the limit of a continuum of modes of the universe. In the case of classical field modes, this was done by Lang, Scully and Lamb  in one dimension for a cavity with one perfect and one semi-transparent mirror. It is interesting to note that in this special case, the authors could explicitly prove that only one quasi mode exhibits amplification whereas all other quasi modes experience attenuation. However, in the context of discussing the properties of excess noise in this paper, we are satisfied by adding damping due to a separate reservoir. In an analogous way as before we can derive the multi-mode master equation

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\widehat{\rho }(t)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}L_{m,n}\left\{2\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}_m\widehat{a}_n^{}\right\}`$ (41)   
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n,m}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}\left\{2\widehat{a}_n\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}_m^{}\widehat{a}_m^{}\widehat{a}_n\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{\rho }(t)\widehat{a}_m^{}\widehat{a}_n\right\}i{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\omega _n[\widehat{a}_n^{}\widehat{a}_n,\widehat{\rho }(t)].`$   
The symmetric matrix $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}`$ is defined similar to the matrix $`L_{m,n}`$ in Eq. (9), with a possibly different volume $`V^{}`$ and a possibly different atom injection rate $`R`$ for the lower state.

We are interested in the case when the strength of the amplification is adjusted such that the quasi-mode amplitude obeys the equation

$$\frac{d}{dt}\widehat{A}=i\mathrm{\Omega }\widehat{A}$$
(42)   
yielding a stationary modulus. At threshold, the laser quasi-mode is oscillating without change of amplitude. Thus, the effects of amplification and attenuation must compensate exactly on the average, but only for this quasi-mode. This does not mean that the two contributions cancel at the level of the master equation, but only that we can find an eigenmode with a purely imaginary eigenvalue. In fact, assuming exact cancellation in the master equation leads us to a trivial case, see below. In Ref.  it is assumed that the same applies to the saturated gain at steady state operation above threshold; here we consider only the linear behavior close to threshold. We return to the discussion of the nonlinear problem in a forthcoming publication.

These assumptions lead to the eigenvalue problem

$$\underset{n}{}\left(\frac{1}{2}L_{m,n}\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}i\delta _{n,m}\omega _n\right)\frac{\epsilon _n}{\epsilon _m}c_n=i\mathrm{\Omega }c_m.$$
(43)   
We thus require the amplification rate $`\lambda `$ as given in Eq. (28) and the damping rate

$$\gamma =\frac{_{n,m}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{n,m}\epsilon _n\epsilon _mc_n^{}c_m}{_n\epsilon _n^2|c_n|^2}$$
(44)   
to be equal; $`\gamma =\lambda `$. Proceeding as before and averaging over position, we obtain the equation

$$\frac{d}{dt}(\mathrm{\Delta }X)^2=(\gamma +\lambda )^2K=2\lambda ^2K$$
(45)   
for the noise with the same excess-noise factor $`K`$ as in Eq. (34). This describes a diffusion process with the diffusion constant $`2D_X=2\lambda ^2K`$. The linewidth of the laser at threshold  is then given by the phase diffusion constant $`2D_\varphi =2D_X/I=K\lambda ^2/4P`$ with field intensity $`I=4^2N^2\widehat{A}^{}\widehat{A}`$ and output power $`P=\gamma I/(4^2)=\gamma N^2\widehat{A}^{}\widehat{A}`$ measured in photon energies. The measurement of the laser intensity is not straightforward in the case of a quasi-mode. However, if the detector is mode matched to the outgoing quasi-mode profile, the maximum intensity $`I`$ is obtained. All other detector arrangements will miss some intensity and give a lower value. In the present case, we find the noise to be purely due to phase diffusion. This derives from our assumption that we consider the steady state near threshold, not a linearized noise theory around the saturated gain. In the latter case, we additionally would expect a line width contribution from the amplitude fluctuations.

We consider now the steady state case when the mode coupling is mainly caused by the damping, which holds if $`L_{m,n}\lambda \delta _{m,n}`$. Then we get from Eq. (43) the eigenvalue equation

$$\underset{n}{}\left(\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}i\delta _{n,m}\omega _n\right)\frac{\epsilon _n}{\epsilon _m}c_n=(\frac{\gamma }{2}i\mathrm{\Omega })c_m$$
(46)   
which is the equation describing a system without an amplifying medium. Since with this assumption the eigenvectors are the same for Eqs. (43) and (46), also the $`K`$-factor is the same in both cases. This result justifies the commonly used procedure to calculate the $`K`$-factor of a laser system from the cavity-decay properties alone. Our assumption probably gives an over-simplified picture of a real laser. However, in most systems the gain medium is distributed uniformly over an essential part of the mode volume. From the definition, Eq. (9), then follows that $`L_{m,n}\lambda \delta _{m,n}`$. Besides this, the gain is often due to a resonant interaction whereas the damping is highly broad band. In that situation it seems reasonable to assume the gain to be diagonal in the “universe” modes and the mode-mode coupling to derive mainly from the loss mechanisms. These contain diffractive losses at the cavity edges and transmission losses, and hence their distribution is bound to differ greatly from the distribution of the amplification. In comparison to the off-diagonal elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}`$, the off-diagonal elements of $`L_{m,n}`$ can be neglected.

From Eq. (43) we can also see in which case the minimum excess noise $`K=1`$ can be achieved. For $`L_{m,n}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}`$ we have $`\widehat{a}_n=\widehat{A}_n`$. Losses and amplification are compensated in each volume element. This means that, when damping and amplification are acting equally in the same volume $`V^{}`$, the true modes and the quasi modes are identical. This can happen when losses are mainly provided by the same entities which give the gain like in dye lasers. In most lasers, however, it is mainly the smallness of the off-diagonal elements of the matrices $`L_{m,n}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{m,n}`$ which leads to a $`K`$-factor close to one.

Summarizing our main results, we have derived the excess-noise factor $`K`$ within the framework of the conventional quantum theory of laser-like systems. Our calculation is conceptually simple and our result also shows a small correction to the well established semi-classical one.

Acknowledgement. We thank M. T. Fontenelle and U. Leonhardt for helpful discussion. We also thank A. E. Siegman and J. P. Woerdman for providing manuscripts prior to publication. One of us (P.J.B.) thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for supporting his work at the Royal Institute of Technology.