Statistical Behavior of Mode Amplitude and Phases in Multimode Dye Lasers

In order to characterize the statistical properties of multimode dye laser light, we have made two types of measurements: 1) mode intensity cross-correlation measurements, and 2) total intensity autocorrelation measurements. The two measurements contain different information. The cross-correlation measurements, made on a pulsed dye laser are detailed in Ref. 1. Briefly, the conclusion of these measurements was that certain pairs of modes are likely to lase simultaneously (coexist) because they don’t strongly compete for gain in the same spatial regions of the dye medium. The cross-correlation measurements gave information only about the amplitudes (intensities) of the modes, and not their phases.