# Quantum-limited linewidth of a chaotic laser cavity

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## Abstract

A random-matrix theory is presented for the linewidth of a laser cavity in which the radiation is scattered chaotically. The linewidth is enhanced above the Schawlow-Townes value by the Petermann factor $`K`$, due to the non-orthogonality of the cavity modes. The factor $`K`$ is expressed in terms of a non-Hermitian random matrix and its distribution is calculated exactly for the case that the cavity is coupled to the outside via a small opening. The average of $`K`$ is found to depend non-analytically on the area of the opening, and to greatly exceed the most probable value.

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It has been known since the conception of the laser  that vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field ultimately limit the narrowing of the emission spectrum by laser action. This quantum-limited linewidth, or Schawlow-Townes linewidth,

$$\delta \omega =\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Gamma }^2/I,$$
(1)   
is proportional to the square of the decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of the lasing cavity mode  and inversely proportional to the output power $`I`$ (in units of photons/s). Many years later it was realised  that the fundamental limit is larger than Eq. (1) by a factor $`K`$ that characterises the non-orthogonality of the cavity modes. This excess noise factor, or Petermann factor, has generated an extensive literature (see the recent papers  and references therein), both because of its fundamental significance and because of its practical importance.

Theories of the enhanced linewidth usually factorise $`K=K_lK_r`$ into a longitudinal and transverse factor, assuming that the cavity mode is separable into longitudinal and transverse modes. Since a longitudinal or transverse mode is essentially one-dimensional, that is a major simplification. Separability breaks down if the cavity has an irregular shape or contains randomly placed scatterers. In the language of dynamical systems, one crosses over from integrable to chaotic dynamics . Chaotic laser cavities have attracted much interest recently , but not in connection with the quantum-limited linewidth.

In this paper we present a general theory for the Petermann factor in a system with chaotic dynamics, and apply it to the simplest case of a chaotic cavity radiating through a small opening. Chaotic systems require a statistical treatment, so we compute the probability distribution of $`K`$ in an ensemble of cavities with small variations in shape and size. We find that the average of $`K1`$ depends non-analytically $`T\mathrm{ln}T^1`$ on the transmission probability $`T`$ through the opening, so that it is beyond the reach of simple perturbation theory. The most probable value of $`K1`$ is $`T`$, hence it is parametrically smaller than the average.

The spectral statistics of chaotic systems is described by random-matrix theory . We begin by reformulating the existing theories for the Petermann factor  in the framework of random-matrix theory. Modes of a closed cavity, in the absence of absorption or amplification, are eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator $`H_0`$. For a chaotic cavity, $`H_0`$ can be modelled by an $`M\times M`$ Hermitian matrix with independent Gaussian distributed elements. (The limit $`M\mathrm{}`$ at fixed spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the modes is taken at the end of the calculation.) The matrix elements are real because of time-reversal symmetry. (This is the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble .) A small opening in the cavity is described by a real, non-random $`M\times N`$ coupling matrix $`W`$, with $`N`$ the number of wave channels transmitted through the opening. (For an opening of area $`𝒜`$, $`N2\pi 𝒜/\lambda ^2`$ at wavelength $`\lambda `$.) Modes of the open cavity are complex eigenvalues (with negative imaginary part) of the non-Hermitian matrix $`H=H_0i\pi WW^T`$. The scattering matrix $`S`$ at frequency $`\omega `$ is related to $`H`$ by 

$$S=𝟙\mathrm{𝟚}\pi 𝕚𝕎^𝕋(\omega )^\mathrm{𝟙}𝕎.$$
(2)   
It is a unitary and symmetric, random $`N\times N`$ matrix, with poles at the eigenvalues of $`H`$.

We now assume that the cavity is filled with a homogeneous amplifying medium (amplification rate $`1/\tau _a`$). This adds a term $`i/2\tau _a`$ to the eigenvalues, shifting them upwards towards the real axis. The lasing mode is the eigenvalue $`\mathrm{\Omega }i\mathrm{\Gamma }/2`$ closest to the real axis, and the laser threshold is reached when the decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of this mode equals the amplification rate $`1/\tau _a`$ . Near the laser threshold we need to retain only the contribution from the lasing mode (say mode number $`l`$) to the scattering matrix (2),

$`S_{nm}`$ $`=`$ $`2\pi i(W^TU)_{nl}(\omega \mathrm{\Omega }+i\mathrm{\Gamma }/2i/2\tau _a)^1`$ (4)   
$`(U^1W)_{lm},`$   
where $`U`$ is the matrix of eigenvectors of $`H`$. Because $`H`$ is a real symmetric matrix, we can choose $`U`$ such that $`U^1=U^T`$ and write Eq. (4) in the form

$$S_{nm}=\sigma _n\sigma _m(\omega \mathrm{\Omega }+i\mathrm{\Gamma }/2i/2\tau _a)^1,$$
(5)   
where $`\sigma _n=(2\pi i)^{1/2}(W^TU)_{nl}`$ is the complex coupling constant of the lasing mode $`l`$ to the $`n`$-th wave channel.

The Petermann factor $`K`$ is given by

$$\sqrt{K}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}|\sigma _n|^2=(U^{}U)_{ll}.$$
(6)   
The second equality follows from the definition of $`\sigma _n`$ , and is the matrix analogon of Siegman’s non-orthogonal mode expression . The first equality follows from the definition of $`K`$ as the factor multiplying the Schawlow-Townes linewidth . One verifies that $`K1`$ because $`(U^{}U)_{ll}(U^TU)_{ll}=1`$.

The relation (6) serves as the starting point for a calculation of the statistics of the Petermann factor in an ensemble of chaotic cavities. Here we restrict ourselves to the case $`N=1`$ of a single wave channel, leaving the multi-channel case for future investigation. For $`N=1`$ the coupling matrix $`W`$ reduces to a vector $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }=(W_{11},W_{21},\mathrm{},W_{M1})`$. Its magnitude $`|\stackrel{}{\alpha }|^2=(M\mathrm{\Delta }/\pi ^2)w`$, where $`w[0,1]`$ is related to the transmission probability $`T`$ of the single wave channel by $`T=4w(1+w)^2`$. We assume a basis in which $`H_0`$ is diagonal (eigenvalues $`\omega _q`$).

If the opening is much smaller than a wavelength, then a perturbation theory in $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }`$ seems a natural starting point. To leading order one finds

$$K=1+(2\pi \alpha _l)^2\underset{ql}{}\frac{\alpha _q^2}{(\omega _l\omega _q)^2}.$$
(7)   
The frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of the lasing mode are given by $`\omega _l`$ and $`2\pi \alpha _l^2`$, respectively, to leading order in $`\stackrel{}{\alpha }`$. We seek the average $`K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ of $`K`$ for a given value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The probability to find an eigenvalue at $`\omega _q`$ given that there is an eigenvalue at $`\omega _l`$ vanishes linearly for small $`|\omega _q\omega _l|`$, as a consequence of eigenvalue repulsion constrained by time-reversal symmetry. Since the expression (7) for $`K`$ diverges quadratically for small $`|\omega _q\omega _l|`$, we conclude that $`K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ does not exist in perturbation theory. This severely complicates the problem.

We have succeeded in obtaining a finite answer for the average Petermann factor by starting from the exact relation

$$U_{ql}z_l=\omega _qU_{ql}i\pi \alpha _q\underset{p}{}\alpha _pU_{pl}$$
(8)   
between the complex eigenvalues $`z_q`$ of $`H`$ and the real eigenvalues $`\omega _q`$ of $`H_0`$. Distinguishing between $`q=l`$ and $`ql`$, and defining $`d_q=U_{ql}/U_{ll}`$, we obtain two recursion relations,

$`z_l`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _li\pi \alpha _l^2i\pi \alpha _l{\displaystyle \underset{ql}{}}\alpha _qd_q,`$ (10)   
$`id_q`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi \alpha _q}{z_l\omega _q}}\left(\alpha _l+{\displaystyle \underset{pl}{}}\alpha _pd_p\right).`$ (11)   
The Petermann factor of the lasing mode $`l`$ follows from

$$\sqrt{K}=\left(1+\underset{ql}{}|d_q|^2\right)\left|1+\underset{ql}{}d_q^2\right|^1.$$
(12)   
We now use the fact that $`z_l`$ is the eigenvalue closest to the real axis. We may therefore assume that $`z_l`$ is close to the unperturbed value $`\omega _l`$ and replace the denominator $`z_l\omega _q`$ in Eq. (11) by $`\omega _l\omega _q`$. That decouples the two recursion relations, which may then be solved in closed form,

$`z_l`$ $`=`$ $`\omega _li\pi \alpha _l^2\left(1+i\pi A\right)^1,`$ (14)   
$`id_q`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi \alpha _q\alpha _l}{\omega _l\omega _q}}\left(1+i\pi A\right)^1.`$ (15)   
We have defined $`A=_{ql}\alpha _q^2(\omega _l\omega _q)^1`$. The decay rate of the lasing mode is

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=2\text{Im}z_l=2\pi \alpha _l^2(1+\pi ^2A^2)^1.$$
(16)   
Since the lasing mode is close to the real axis, we may linearise the expression (12) for $`K`$ with respect to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$,

$$K=1+4\underset{ql}{}(\text{Im}d_q)^2=1+\frac{(2\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }/\mathrm{\Delta })B}{1+\pi ^2A^2},$$
(17)   
with $`B=\mathrm{\Delta }_{ql}\alpha _q^2(\omega _l\omega _q)^2`$.

The conditional average of $`K`$ at given $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ can be written as the ratio of two unconditional averages,

$`K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}`$ $`=`$ $`1+(2\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }/\mathrm{\Delta })B(1+\pi ^2A^2)^1Z/Z,`$ (19)   
$`Z`$ $`=`$ $`\delta (\mathrm{\Omega }\omega _l)\delta \left(\mathrm{\Gamma }2\pi \alpha _l^2(1+\pi ^2A^2)^1\right).`$ (20)   
In principle one should also require that the decay rates of modes $`ql`$ are bigger than $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, but this extra condition becomes irrelevant for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0`$. For $`M\mathrm{}`$ the distribution of $`\alpha _q`$ is Gaussian $`\mathrm{exp}(\frac{1}{2}\alpha _q^2\pi ^2/w\mathrm{\Delta })`$ . The average of $`Z`$ over $`\alpha _l`$ yields a factor $`(1+\pi ^2A^2)^{1/2}`$,

$$K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}=1+(2\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }/\mathrm{\Delta })\frac{B(1+\pi ^2A^2)^{1/2}}{(1+\pi ^2A^2)^{1/2}},$$
(21)   
where only the averages over $`\alpha _q`$ and $`\omega _q`$ ($`ql`$) remain, at fixed $`\omega _l=\mathrm{\Omega }`$.

The problem is now reduced to a calculation of the joint probability distribution $`P(A,B)`$. This is a technical challenge, similar to the level curvature problem of random-matrix theory . The calculation will be presented elsewhere, here we only give the result:

$$P(A,B)=\frac{1}{6}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2w}}\frac{\pi ^2A^2+w^2}{B^{7/2}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{w}{2B}\left(\frac{\pi ^2A^2}{w^2}+1\right)\right].$$
(22)   
Together with Eq. (21) this gives the mean Petermann factor

$$K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}=1\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\frac{2\pi }{3}\frac{G_{22}^{22}\left(w^2|\begin{array}{cc}0& 0\\ \frac{1}{2}& \frac{1}{2}\end{array}\right)}{G_{22}^{22}\left(w^2|\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{2}& \frac{1}{2}\\ 1& 0\end{array}\right)},$$
(23)   
in terms of the ratio of two Meijer $`G`$-functions. We have plotted the result in Fig. 1, as a function of $`T=4w(1+w)^2`$.

The non-analytic dependence of the average $`K`$ on $`T`$ (and hence on the area of the opening ) is a striking feature of our result. For $`T1`$, the average reduces to

$$K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}=1+\frac{\pi }{6}\frac{T\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\mathrm{ln}\frac{16}{T}.$$
(24)   
The non-analyticity results from the relatively weak eigenvalue repulsion in the presence of time-reversal symmetry. If time-reversal symmetry is broken by a magneto-optical effect (as in Refs. ), then the stronger quadratic repulsion is sufficient to overcome the $`\omega ^2`$ divergence of perturbation theory and the average $`K`$ becomes an analytic function of $`T`$. For this case, we find instead of Eq. (21) the simpler expression

$$K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}=1+(2\pi \mathrm{\Gamma }/\mathrm{\Delta })\frac{B}{1+\pi ^2A^2}.$$
(25)   
Using the joint probability distribution

$$P(A,B)=\frac{\left(\pi ^2A^2+w^2\right)^2}{3wB^5}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{w}{B}\left(\frac{\pi ^2A^2}{w^2}+1\right)\right],$$
(26)   
we find the mean $`K`$,

$$K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}=1+\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\frac{4\pi w}{3(1+w^2)},$$
(27)   
shown dashed in Fig. 1. It is equal to $`K_{\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }}=1+\frac{1}{3}\pi T\mathrm{\Gamma }/\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for $`T1`$.

So far we have concentrated on the average Petermann factor, but from Eqs. (16), (17), and (22) we can compute the entire probability distribution of $`K`$ at fixed $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. We define $`\kappa =(K1)\mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{\Gamma }T`$. A simple result for $`P(\kappa )`$ follows for $`T=1`$,

$$P(\kappa )=\frac{4\pi ^2}{3}\kappa ^{7/2}\mathrm{exp}(\pi /\kappa ),$$
(28)   
and for $`T1`$,

$$P(\kappa )=\frac{\pi }{12\kappa ^2}\left(1+\frac{\pi }{2\kappa }\right)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{4}\pi /\kappa \right),\kappa T1.$$
(29)   
As shown in Fig. 2, both distributions are very broad and asymmetric, with a long tail towards large $`\kappa `$ . The most probable (or modal) value of $`K1T\mathrm{\Gamma }/\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is parametrically smaller than the mean value (24) for $`T1`$.

To check our analytical results we have also done a numerical simulation of the random-matrix model, generating a large number of random matrices $`H_0`$ and computing $`K`$ from Eq. (6). As one can see from Fig. 2, the agreement with Eqs. (28) and (29) is flawless.

In conclusion, we have shown that chaotic scattering causes large statistical fluctuations in the quantum-limited linewidth of a laser cavity. We have examined in detail the case that the coupling to the cavity is via a single wave channel, but our random-matrix model applies more generally to coupling via an arbitrary number $`N`$ of wave channels. We have computed exactly the distribution of the Petermann factor for $`N=1`$. It remains an open problem to do the same for $`N>1`$. This problem is related to several recent studies of the statistics of eigenfunctions of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians , but is complicated by the constraint that the corresponding eigenvalue is the closest to the real axis. Our study of a system with a fully chaotic phase space complements previous theoretical work on systems with an integrable dynamics. Chaotic laser cavities of recent experimental interest  have a phase space that includes both integrable and chaotic regions. The study of the quantum-limited linewidth of such mixed systems is a challenging problem for future research.

We have benefitted from discussions with P. W. Brouwer, K. M. Frahm, Y. V. Fyodorov, and F. von Oppen. This work was supported by the Dutch Science Foundation NWO/FOM and by the TMR program of the European Union.