Intensity fluctuation of a pulsed planar microcavity laser

Probability distributions of the peak output power from planar microcavity dye lasers with pulsed excitation have been studied experimentally. Two microcavities were used, one operating possibly with a single mode and the other possibly with a number of modes. These expectations are based on the relative magnitude of the mode radius and the pump beam radius. In the former cavity an exponential-like distribution was observed below threshold, which indicates single-mode operation. In the latter cavity a single-peaked distribution appeared even below threshold indicating multiple-mode operation. These results are, respectively, in qualitative agreement with theoretical distributions for steady state. That the observed pulse width is large enough to apply steady state distribution equation is shown by calculating the characteristic transient time for the intensity distribution. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.