Simultaneous influence of quantum fluctuations of the intensity and of spatial inhomogeneities on the emission dynamics of wide-band lasers and on the sensitivity of intracavity spectroscopy

Rate equations are used to show that the combination of fluctuations and inhomogeneities can have a significant influence on the dynamics of emission of multimode wide-band lasers even when the lasing duration is ~ 1 ms. The sensitivity of intracavity spectroscopy is then limited to ~ 10 ^– 8 cm ^– 1.