Abstract
Optical systems in which the amount of noise effectively seeding1 the mode is larger than the usual quantum limit are said to have excess spontaneous emission, or excess noise. In these systems it is convenient to expand the field in terms of the nonorthogonal eigenmodes of the system. Theories based on non orthogonal mode expansions have predicted, and subsequent experiments have verified, that excess spontaneous emission influences both the spectral width and the beam-pointing fluctuations of the output field in an optical system. Examples of optical systems, all described by non-Hermitian wave equations or boundary conditions, that may have excess noise include laser resonators with high output coupling, unstable resonators, and gain-guided amplifiers.
© 1993 Optical Society of America
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