| Quantum fluctuations play a critical role in determining the steady-state and transient response of a laser. Such fluctuations can dominate behavior when there is a small number of particles in the system. Correlations between n discrete excited electronic states and s discrete photons can create non-Poisson probability distributions and damp the average dynamic response of laser emission. In this thesis a quantum mechanical treatment of fluctuations and saturable absorption in meso-scale lasers is presented. Time evolution of the density matrix is obtained from numerical integration and field-field and intensity-intensity correlations are calculated to obtain steady-state line width and photon statistics. Inclusion of a saturable absorber in the otherwise homogeneous medium is shown to suppress lasing, increase fluctuations, and enhance spontaneous emission near threshold. Methods to connect between quantum, meso-scale and classical systems is also developed. |
