422 PROCEEDINGSOF THE IEEE, VOL. 6 0 , NO.

4, APRIL 1972

Mode Selection in Lasers

P. W. SMITH, MEMBER, IEEE

Znvited Paper

AbstracbThis is a tutorial review on the subiect of mode selection in tutorial review of these methods. Section 11is a historical review
lasers. We beginwith ahistorical review.Afteran introductiontothe
of the subject of mode selection in lasers. Section 111 is a brief
subject of modes in laser resonators and a brief review of the theory of la-
ser gain saturation, the main body of the poper is devoted to a discussion outline of the subject of modes inlaser resonators.In many laser
of various mode-selection techniques, many which can be used to produce systems, the characteristics of the laser gain saturationwill affect
single-frequencylaser operation. W e discusssomesystems forfrequency theoutputmodestructure.Thecharacteristics of lasergain
stabilization
of single-frequency lasers, ond conclude with examples saturation pertinentto mode-selection schemesare briefly covered
of laserapplications where mode-selectiontechniques arerequired.
in Section IV. In Sections V and VI we discuss specific mode-
I. INTRODUCTION selection techniques which have been used for the selection of
transverse and longitudinal resonator modes. By using one or

B ECAUSE THE resonators that are used for typical lasers several of these techniques, single-frequency laser operation can
have dimensions which are large compared to a n optical be obtained with almost any type

closely spaced modes. If the gain medium placed in such a res- have this frequency stabilized
of laser. For many applications
wavelength, they will, in general, have a large number of it is important notjust to have single-frequency operation, butto
and precisely controlled.In Section
onator exhibits gain at several of these mode frequencies, we VI1 we discuss some representativefrequency-stabilization
might expect the laser output to consist of light at a number of schemes. SectionVI11 concludes the paper with a discussion of a
closely spaced frequencies. Although Schawlow and Townes [l] number of laser applications requiring lasers with some type of
in their classic paper proposing laser operation had suggested mode control.
that for a sufficiently stable laser, gain nonlinearities might cause
mode suppression which wouldresult in single-mode oscillation,
11. HISTORICALREVIEW
the early lasers were found to oscillate in a band of discrete fre-
quencies with a bandwidth typically 10+-lW5 of the laser fre- Less than two years after laser actionwas first observed in a
quency. Although this is a rather monochromatic light source, laboratory [2], Kleinman and Kisliuk [3], in early 1962, pub-
there are still many applications for which greater spectral puritylished the first proposal for a complex laser resonator to obtain
is required. single-frequency laser operation.Shortlythereafter,Kogelnik
There has been an increasing interest in light scattering ex- and Patel [4] described the successful utilization of this technique
periments in recent years as a result of the availability of high- to construct a single-frequency He-Ne gaslaser. In the same year
intensity CW laser light sources. Although for most Ramsn scat- Raker and Peters [5] described what appear tobe the first experi-
tering studiesthe outputof a multimodelaser can be used without ments on the use of an aperture in a laser resonator to restrict
decreasing resolution, essentially single-frequencylaser output is oscillation to one or a few low-order transverse resonator modes.
required in order to resolve the features seen in many Brillouin During 1963, a number of workers began investigations of
scattering experiments. Another rapidly developing area where laser mode-selection techniques. Collins and White [6] reported
laser mode-selection techniquesare finding use is that of tunable the use of a n interferometric mode selectorto reduce the number
laser spectroscopy. Not only has Lambdipspectroscopy enabled of oscillating resonator modes of a ruby laser. McFarlane et al.
us to study the properties of the laser transitions themselves, [7] reported what was probably the first scientific investigation
but the large tuning range available with tunable narrow-band undertakenusingasingle-frequency laser. Theyobserved the
dye lasers is making it possible to study a wide variety of materials output asa functionof length of a 1.15-pm He-Ne laser, and were
with a precision never before achieved. Single-frequency lasers able to make an estimate of the homogeneous linewidth of the
are important components in some proposed laser communica- 1.15-pm 2s+2p4 neon laser line. Tang et al. [8], [9] wrote the
tions systems, where they generate the carrieron which informa- f i s t papers discussingthe role of “spatial hole burning” in single-
tion is imposed by suitable modulation techniques. Laser mode- frequency laser operation. They showed that by constructing a
selectiontechniques arealsorequiredformakingholograms laser resonator in such a way that the light interacting with the
with appreciable depth of field. Other uses of single-frequency ruby laser medium was in the form of a traveling wave, single-
lasers includeprecisioninterferometry,pumps forparametric frequency operation could be obtained.
oscillators, and even, with suitable stabilization, possible stan- Also in 1963,Li [lo] published one of a series of papers he
dards of length and time. Some of these uses will be discussed in and Fox would write on the theory of modes in laser resonators.
more detail later in this article. This paper showed how transverse mode selection could be ac-
Because of the need for high-power narrow-bandwidth laser complished by the use of an aperture at the center of a laser
sources, many techniques for reducing the number of oscillating resonator. This and later papersby Fox and Li [ll],[12] helped
laser modeshavebeendeveloped.Thisarticle will presenta to put on a quantitative basis the subject of transverse mode
selection in laser resonators.
In 1964, Lamb [52] published his now classic paper on the
ManuscriptreceivedJanuary 10, 1972; revisedFebruary 1. 1972. theory of an optical maser, andshowed that under certaincondi-
This inoitedpper is one of a series planned on topics of general interest-
The Editor. tionsmodecompetitioncouldbe strong enough to cause the
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The author is with Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Holmdel, N. J. suppression of oscillation on some resonator modes, with resultant
 n
r~
;
SMITH : MODE SELECTION IN LASERS 423

single-frequencyoperation. Around the year 1964, several au- t

thorsreportedthedevelopment of gas laser tubes sufficiently
compact that they could be used in resonators short enough to
produce single-frequency operation. In this way single-frequency
m=+x+ m=yb
operation was obtained with He-Ne lasers at 1.15 pm [7] and
6328 A [13]-[16].
During 1965, a number of new techniques for longitudinal
mode selection were proposed and demonstrated. Hercher [17]

TiP-*&
describedaQ-switchedruby laser which oscillatedinasingle
mode because of the use of a multiple reflector as anend mirror.
This so-called “resonant-reflector” technique had been described
earlier by Burch[ 181. Massey et al. [19] described the demodula-
tion of the output of an FM-mode-locked He-Ne laser to obtain
single-frequency output.Arelated schemeinvolving an FM Fig. 1. Cross-sectional amplitude distribution of some low-
laser with an etalon output reflector was proposed and demon- order Gaussian beam modes of the type TEMmo.
strated by Hams and McMurtry [20]. A novel and efficient in-
terferometric laser resonator proposed by Fox [21] was shown by
Smith [22] to produce high-power single-frequency output from [49]). The reader is referred in particular to the excellent review
a 6328-A He-Ne laser. Also during 1965, Sooywroteanote- article by Kogelnik and Li [47]. There exist sets of modes having
worthy paper explaining how saturable dyes could act to narrow the same spatial energy distribution transverse to the resonator
the spectral outputof Q-switched lasers. In thefield of transverse axis, but having different numbers of half wavelengths of light
mode selection, Li and Smith [24] described the use of a “cat’s- along the axisof the resonator. These are called the longitudinal
eye”resonator toobtain high-powerfundamental-transverse- modes of the resonator and are spaced in frequency by c/2L,
mode operationof a 6328-A He-Ne laser, and Siegman [25] wrote where c is the velocity of light and L is the spacingbetween the
the first paper on theuse of unstable optical resonators for trans- resonator mirrors. Corresponding to eachlongitudinalmode
verse mode selection. number, i.e., to a given number of half wavelengthsof light along
During 1966, “vernier” types of interferometric mode-selec- the resonator axis, there exists a setof modes which havedifferent
tion devices were describedby DiDomenico [26], [27] and White distributions of energy in the plane transverse to the resonator
[28]. Much of the work since that time has been devoted to the axis. These are called thetransversemodes of the resonator.
improvement of existing techniques, and the application of the Fig. 1 shows the field distributions for some low-order transverse
techniques to other laser systems. In the next few years, mode- modes with rectangular symmetry. Thereexists a complementary
selective and frequency-selectivetechniques were applied to set with circular symmetry.The propertiesof both sets are similar,
water vapor [29], Nd:glass [30], [31], Nd:YAG [32]-[34], COZ however, and further discussion in this paper will refer to the
[35], mercury vapor [36], and other laser systems. Mode-selec- rectangular-symmetry modes. The cross-sectional amplitude dis-
tive techniques were also used to produce single-frequency ring tribution of these modes A ( x , y ) is given closely by [47]
lasers [37 3.
In 1968 Chebotaev and his co-workers [38] and independently
Lee [39] described a novel mode-selective laser system
resonant absorber was used inside alaser resonator. In bothcases
in which a d4 (X, y) = A m , ,I),(
[ (w)H m
4 2X
Hn
4Y

a neon discharge was usedas the resonant absorber for a6328-A

He-Ne laser, This type of laser-absorber system has also been
+
.exp [ - ( x 2 y2)/wz] (1)
used for laser frequencystabilization [40], [41]. Another new where x and y are the transverse coordinates, A,,,,,, is a constant
mode-selective technique to be introduced in 1968 was the metal whose value depends on the field strength of the mode, w is the
film technique of Troitskii and his co-workers [43], [43]. They radius of the fundamental mode(m=0, n =0) at l / e maximum
were able to obtain single-frequency operation of a He-Ne laser amplitude, H,(b) is the uth-order Hermite polynomial with argu-
by inserting a thin metal film at a nodal plane in the laser res- ment b, and rn and n are the transverse mode numbers. These
onator. This techniquewas later applied to argon ionlasers and modes are often called the TEM,, modes by analogy with modes
Nd:YAG lasers by Smith et al. [44]. Internalmodulation of in waveguides. Note that Fig.1 shows the x variation of the field
single-frequency lasers was also investigated during this period for different mode order numbers m. The same variations occur in
[45], [46]. In recent years, many workers have been concerned the y direction for the appropriate values of n.
with the problem of obtaining tunable single-frequency operation It can be shown that for agiven laser resonator, the resonant
of dye lasers, and with the problems of laser frequency stability frequency of a given mode is
and reproducibility.
Beforediscussing specific mode-selectiontechniques it will v m , n . q = ( c / ~ L () q( + l > + [ ( l+ m + n> / n] arccos (2)
be useful to review the subject of modes in laser resonators, and
to discuss briefly the influence of the gain medium on the resona-where q, the longitudinal mode order number, is the number of
tor modes. nodes in the axial standing-wave pattern (the number of half
wavelengths is q+l), rn and n are the transversemode order
111. MODESIN LASERRESONATORS numbers, and gi = 1 -L/Ri, where Ri is the radius of curvature
A mode of a resonator canbe defined as a self-consistant field of mirror i (i= 1, 2). Note that adjacent longitudinal modes are
configuration. That is, the optical field distribution reproduces spaced in frequency by c/2L, and thatdifferent transverse modes
itself after one round trip in the resonator. The modes of a res- have, in general,different frequencies.
onatorAuthorized
formedby a pair
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University. Downloaded In any
have on March realatlaser
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apply. will be
been studied extensively (see, for example, [lo]-[12] and [47]- lost by leaking around mirrors of finite size or by interrupting an
424 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. APRIL 1972

LONGITUDINAL
RESONATOR MODES
I
--
I I I I I I I I I
U-
I I I

RESONATOR

Ill,,
LASER

Fig. 2. Stabilitydiagramshowingstable(low-loss) and unstable

(high-loss) values of mirror radius of curvature (R1and R2) and
OUTPUT

I IIII
mirror separation L. U+
Fig. 4. Laser oscillation on a number of longitudinal
g 20 resonator modes.
0

the net gain exceeds the losses. This is illustrated in Fig. 4 where
we show one possible laser output when a numberof longitudinal
resonator modes are above threshold for oscillation. In any real
laser there are several effects which will to some extent modify
this simple picture. It does illustrate, however, that although the
bandwidth of a single laser mode can in theorybe as narrow as a
fraction of a hertz [50], the actual oscillation bandwidth of a
v , I
typical laser with no mode control will be governed by the width
I
02 0.5 I 2 5 IO of the gain curve,which may be several gigahertzfor gaslasers in
f a‘ N = a*/ XL
the visible region of the spectrum and much larger for solid-state
Fig. 3. Ratio of losses per pass for the TEMlo and TEMoomodes in lasers. The total output of the laser as a function of time will
resonators with two mirrors of equal radii of curvature, as a func- depend on the amplitudes, frequencies, and phases of the oscil-
tion of the Fresnel number N for various values of g ( = 1 --L/R)
(after Li [11I). lating modes. Due to random phase fluctuations the output will
fluctuate in a random way as a function of time. One way to
control thisis to fix the amplitudesand phases of the modes. This
aperture within the laser resonator. These losses will depend on is called “mode-locking” a laser,and this technique is very useful
the diameter of the laser beam in the plane of the aperture (w) when an output pulse train is desired. (For a recent review of
and the aperture radius. For some values of mirror curvature and mode-locking of lasers see [51]). Alternatively,mode-selection
spacing, the beam size at the mirrors approaches infinity, and techniquesmay be used toobtain single-frequency CW laser
large diffraction losses will result. These high-loss configurations output.
are known as unstable resonator geometries. Fig. 2. shows the To some extent, the presence of the laser medium will affect
stable and unstable regions for a resonatorwith mirrors of radius the transverse mode distributions in the resonator. Fox and Li
R1 and Rs,respectively, separated by a distance L. The Fresnel [12] have shown, however, that even for moderately high-gain
number N=a*/(XL) is a measure of the effect of an aperture of gas lasers this effect is small, and to a good approximation the
radius a at both mirrors of a resonator of length L. X is the wave- transverse mode intensity distribution and diffraction losses for
length of the light. For resonators with a large Fresnel number an active laser willbe the same as those calculated fur a pas-
(N>>l), the transition from low- to high-loss regions in Fig. 2 is sive resonator. The gain medium will have an appreciable effect
quite abrupt, but for Fresnel numbersNY 1, the transitionis more on the transverse mode distributions for such cases as the ex-
gradual. tremely high-gain gas lasers (such as the 3.5-pmHe-Xe laser)
Because of the fact thathigher order transverse modes have a and optically pumped solid-state lasers, where thermal gradients
larger spatial extent than the fundamental transverse mode (see in the laser material may produce appreciable mode distortion.
Fig. l), a given size aperture will preferentiallydiscriminate The dispersive effects of the laser medium will modify some-
against higher order transvers? modes in a laser resonator. Fig. 3what themodefrequencies of thepassive cavity. Once again,
shows howthe relative diffraction lossesfor the fundamental and these effects are found to be small for low-gain lasers (see, for
second-order laser modes depend on the resonator geometry. We example [ 5 2 ] ) , but can become quite large in some of the high-
shall return to this point in our discussion of transverse mode gain laser systems [Xa].
selection later in this paper. For most lasers the major effect of the gain medium on the
oscillating laser modes is that of modecompetition.Fig.5(a)
I v . INFLUENCE OF THE LASER GAINMEDIUM ON RESONATOR
shows the multimode output of ahigh-power argoniongas
MODES : MODE COMPETITION laser. The amplitudes of these modes are fluctuating with time.
Let us consider the effectof placing alaser gain mediuminto a Fig. 5(b) shows the single-frequency output at the same output
resonator such as we have been discussing in Section 111. Light power lecel obtained by the use of a mode-selective device within
energy will begin to build up in those resonator modes for which the laser resonator. How is it possible to channel allof the power
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SMITH : MODE SELECTION IN LASERS 425

(a I (b)
Fig. 5. (a) Multimode output of an argon laser. (b) Single-frequency
output of the same laser.The laser output power is the samein both
photographs.

HWOGENEOW

I ‘NH-ENEOUS

t Fig. 7. Plots of laser gain as a function of frequency. (a) Single mode

GAlh
at frequency v1 away from atomic line center. (b) Single mode at
frequency v I at line center. (c) Plot
of single-mode output poweras a
function of frequency.

ties of light traveling in each direction, and standing waves are

- formed in the resonator.If the laser medium is a gas whose gain
--- UNSATURATED
SATURATED curve is inhomogeneouslybroadenedbecause of theDoppler
Fig. 6. The saturation behaviorofhomogeneouslybroadened and effect due to the distribution of thermal velocities, then a single
inhomogeneouslybroadenedresonance lines underinfluenceof frequency of radiation in the resonator will, in general, interact
intense monochromatic radiation at the frequency indicated by the with two groupsof atoms-one group in resonance with the light
arrow. traveling one direction, and the other group with light traveling
in the opposite direction. This is illustratedFig. in 7(a) wherewe
distributed among the resonator modes in Fig.5(a) into a single show the two holes burned in thelaser gain profile due to radia-
resonator mode? To answer this question we must examine the tion in asingle resonator modeat frequency V I . When v I coincides
manner inwhich the gain medium saturates. with the atomic resonance frequency, both traveling waves will
Fig. 6 shows the way in whichhomogeneously andin- interact with the same group of atoms-those with zero axial
homogeneouslybroadenedresonance lines saturateunderthe velocity. This is shown in Fig. 7(b). Because at line center fewer
influence of a traveling wave of intense monochromatic radiation atoms give energy to the laser mode,the output poweris reduced.
at the frequency indicatedby the arrow. For an inhomogeneous This effect is evident in Fig. 7(c) which shows the so-called ‘Lamb
line it ispossible to “burn a hole,” i.e., saturate only those atoms dip’ at the center of the output-power-versus-frequency curve.
with resonant frequencies closeto that of the incident radiation. The width of the Lamb dip low at laser powers gives a measure of
Although a detailed treatment of the theoryof laser operation the homogeneous linewidth y.
is rather complicated (see, forexample, [52]), we canobtain On the basis of our previous discussion it would appear that
physicalunderstandingfroma“hole-burning”modeldue to one might expect spontaneous single-frequency operation when
Bennett [53]. He shows rhat the halfwidth of the “hole,” yh in the laser medium has ahomogeneously broadened resonanceline.
the populationinversion-versus-frequency curveis Such operation is usually not observed, however, due to a phe-
nomenon called spatial hole burning [8], [9]. This is illustrated in
?’h = ?’(I + I/Is)’” (3) Fig. 8. We seethat dueto the standing-wave nature of the fields in
where y is thehomogeneous linewidth(thehalfwidth of thea two-mirror laser resonator, there will be spatial regions in the
atomic response of a n individual atom), Z is the incident light gain medium whichare not saturated by a given mode, and which
intensity, and I,, the saturation parameter, is a group of atomic can give gain to another modeof a different frequency. Thus even
constants. We see, then, that radiation in single a resonator mode with a completely homogeneously broadened laser line, multi-
can interact with atoms over a frequency range of roughly 2yh. modeoscillation will take place in a standing-waveresonator
If, as is often the case, the resonator mode spacing is less than unless one utilizes one or moreof the mode-selection techniques
2yh, then several resonator modes will be interacting with the to be discussed in the next sections.
same group of atoms. This is termed mode competition, for a
given atom can only contribute its energy to one of the modes, V. TRANSVERSE MODESELECTION TECHNIQUES
and this energy is then unavailable for the others. If some mode- From Fig. 1 it can be seen that higher andhigher order trans-
suppressiontechnique is used to favoronemode within the verse modes have their energy less and less concentrated along the
2yh frequency region, this modewill compete more favorably for axis of the laser resonator. For this reason given a circular aper-
the available energy, and thus grow at the expense of the other ture in a laser resonator gives progressively higher diffraction
less favored modes.In this way mode competitioncan aid us when losses as one goes to higher and higher order transverse modes.
we wish to obtain laser oscillation on a single resonator mode. This factcan conveniently be used if, as is often thecase, we wish
In a typical laser with a simple two-mirror resonator, the ra- to select the lowest order(fundamental)transverseresonator
diationAuthorized
in the resonator consists
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426 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE,APRIL 1972
+
( a 1 FIELD AMPLITUDE
NODE *Am

Fig. 8. Spatial holeburning in a laser medium in a standing-wave ( b)

resonator. (a) Electricfield of one longitudinal mode (mode A).
(b) Gain saturation due to mode A. (c) Electric field of adjacent Fig. 9. (a) The “cat’s eye” resonator. (b) Laser output from mirror
longitudinal mode (modeB). Note that modeB will experience gain M I for (i) both apertures open-rnultimode operation; (ii) aperture
as it can interact with atoms that are not saturated by mode A. at lens closed-fundamental transverse mode operation; and (iii)
aperture at mirror Mt closed-fundamental transverse mode opera-
tion. The output power for (iii)is 2.5 times that of (ii) (after Li and
which the l o s s e s for the second-order mode are greater than the Smith [24]).
laser gain. (The diffraction loss caused by a given aperture canbe
found from the curves given in [l I].) In practice, due to transverse
mode competition, a somewhat larger size can oftenbe used.The
transverse mode selectivity achievable with a circular aperture
of radius a (strictly with two circularapertures-one at each res-
onator mirror) is illustrated in Fig. 3. Note that this selectivity is
strongly dependent on the resonatorgeometry, and is greatest for
a confocal resonator (two mirrors of equal radiiof curvature sepa-
rated by a distance equal to the radiusof curvature) andleast for
the plane parallel resonator (two plane mirrors). Several authors
have reported modifying the plane-parallel resonators of solid-
state lasersto obtain regions with better mode-selective properties
[5], [67], 1681. Evtuhov and Nieland [69] reported good mode
selectivity in a ruby laser by making the resonator end reflector
have highreflectivity only where the fields of the desired mode are
high. A similar techniquewas used in [70].
Because a confocal resonator has the smallest fundamental CASSEBRAINIAN UNSTABLE
mode volume of any of the resonator geometries, a number of
authors have considered ways of increasing the mode volume and Fig. 10. Unstable (high &&action loss) laser resonators
at thesame timemaintaining high mode selectivity [71]-[75]. For (after Siegman and Arrathoon [77]).
many applications, a good compromise is a resonator consisting
of a plane mirror and curved mirror separated by a distance some- used. Mode-selection experiments with unstable resonators have
what less than the mirror radius of curvature [71]. Another tech- been reported for ruby [25], Nd:glass [30], pulsed argon [82],
nique is the use of a “cat’seye” resonator [24], [76]. Fig. %a) and CO, [83] laser systems.
shows a schematic diagramof this type of resonator. The mode There are a number of other fundamental-transverse-mode
volume can be increased to fill the laser gain medium by closing selection techniqueswhich have beenfound useful in specific laser
the aperture at mirror M2.Under these conditions the mode selec- systems [84]-[97], [1?2], [173]. Experimenters have found that
tivity is essentially that of a confwal resonator. Fig. 9@)shows reduction of the angulardivergence of the beamis a useful method
the increases in fundamental mode volume and outputpower that of mode control [86]-[89]. The use of roof-top prismswith angle
have been achieved by Li and Smith [24] using such a resonator slightly less than 90” t o make a resonator hasbeen found tobe a
with a 6328 A He-Ne gas laser. useful method to obtain single-transverse-mode operation of a
Many authorshave used resonators in the unstable (high-loss) ruby laser [89], [90].The use of a saturable absorber dye for Q-
regions of Fig. 2 to achieve fundamental mode oscillation. These switching alaser has been shown t o be also a method of achieving
resonators areused in particularwith high-gainlasers. The power transversemode selection (911, [172], [173]. Because thelens
“lost” by diffraction around oneof the laser mirrors can be uti- effect due to the heating of an optically pumped laser rodby the
lized as theuseful laser output. These unstable resonator systems pumping light will reduce the fundamental modevolume of the
have been analyzed by several authors [25], [77]-[83]. Fig. 10 passive resonator, this effect must be compensated for if high-
shows two examples of unstable laser resonatorswhich have been power fundamental-mode operation of these lasersis desired [84].

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S M I T H : MODE SELECTION IN LASERS 421

LENS LENS
RAY
CATHOOE TUBE FOCAL LENGTHsf FOCAL
LENG1H.f
ACTIVE M E W

MFLECTION CATHODE DISCHARGE)

IELD CONJUGATE

MEFRINGENT PLATE
ARCOATING
CdO COATINO

Fig. 11. An early version of a scanlaser (after Myers [36]).

An analysis of thermal effects in a Nd:YAG laser has recently

been made by Fricke [85].
Fig. 12. A small 6328-A He-Ne laser tube designed
Higher order transverse modes can be selected by the use of for single-frequency operation.
complex apertures [98], [99] or reflectors with regions of low re-
flectivity [100], which discriminate against(i.e., give high loss to)
all but the desired mode. A simple example is the use of a single to the scanlaser system describedearlier, one could also picture
fine wire perpendicular to the resonator axis select to the second- the use of this mode-switching techniqueto force a highly multi-
order (TEol)mode. mode laser oscillator to operate with a given transverse energy
For some applications it maybe desirable to have the ability distribution.
to switch from one transverse mode to another. An example of
this type of system is the “scanlaser” described by Myers [36]. VI. LONGITUDINAL MODE-SELECTION TECHNIQUES
This is an image display device which uses a very high-Fresnel- As we discussed in Section 111, the longitudinal modes of a
number laser that is capable of oscillating in a large number of simple resonator are spaced in frequency by c/2L where c is the
transverse modes. The operation of this device is illustrated in velocity of light and L is the mirror spacing. We can see from Fig.
Fig. 11. By using a mirror whose reflectivity can be varied over its 4 that it is always possibleto increase the resonatorlosses to the
surface, it is possible to have the laser oscillate with some given point that only one orfewa longitudinal modes are above thresh-
intensity distribution, i.e., some given combination of transverse old for oscillation.In this way we obtain narrow-bandwidth laser
modes. If the left-hand mirror in Fig.11 had uniformly high re- operation-but at the expense of output power. A somewhat more
flectivity, the laser would oscillatein a large number of transverse practical idea is to reduce the length of the laser resonator, and
modes. Oscillation is prevented, however, by the quartz plate thus increase the frequency spacing between longitudinal resona-
which rotates the planeof polarization of the incidentlight suffi- tor modes to the point that only one mode is above threshold for
ciently so that theloss the light experiences in passing through the oscillation. Although this technique also sacrifices output power
Brewster-angle windows of the laser tube is larger than thelaser (for the laser gain medium mustbe small enoughto fit within the
gain. By focusing an electron beam onto a region of potassium resonator !), there are a numberof laser systems for which prac-
dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) slab in of front
the laser mirror, one tical single-frequency laser oscillators can be constructed in this
can create areas of charge on the KDP surface, and thus fields manner. Fig.12 shows a small 6328 A He-Ne laser tube developed
across the KDP. The local regionsof birefringence in the KDP for single-frequency operation. Shortsingle-frequency He-Ne gas
can be made to just compensate the birefringence introducedby lasers have been built for operation at 6328 A [13]-[16], [102],
the quartzslab. Thus modes with radiation concentrated in these [lo31 or 1.15 pm [7].
regions will experience low loss and canbe made to oscillate. In Stillman et al. [lo41 have shown thatby reducing theeffective
this way complicated patterns of high-order laser modes can be resonator length of a cadmium selenide laser to a value of ap-
producedandthemodepatterns can be rapidlychanged by proximately 2 pm, the longitudinal mode spacing couldbe made
“writing” a new charge distributionon the KDPslab. Resolution sufficiently greatso that thelaser would oscillateon a single longi-
of more than200 spots/cm has been obtained with devices of this tudinal mode. There are many systems, however, which would re-
type. quire impractically short lengths of active medium for this method
Johnston et al. [loll have performed “mode-switching” ex- to be effective. For this reason many other techniques of longitu-
periments with 6328 A He-Ne lasers. They showed that a laser dinal mode selection have been developed, and we shall review
normally oscillating in the fundamental mode could be switched them in this section.
to second-order-mode operation by the injectionof a low-power Let us begin by noting that it would be possible to pass the
second-order-mode signal of the correct frequency. Under these output of a laser oscillating in a number of longitudinal modes
conditions the two lasers will belocked together in frequency. Thethrough a filter (for example a short Fabry-Perot resonator) ex-
use of a low-power precisely mode-controlled laser to regulate a ternal to thelaser cavity, and in this way obtain a narrow-band-
high-power laser couldbe a useful technique. In a manner similar width laser beam.For a great many laser systems, mode competi-

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428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE E E , APRIL 1972

I 2 3 4
GAS PRESSURE ( T O R R )

Fig. 13. Homogeneous linewidth of the 6328-A neon laser line versus
ressure for a 7:l mixture ofHe8:Ne'O (after Smith and Hansch

tion effects are such that if some modesare suppressed withinthe

laser resonator, more energy will be available for the remaining
oscillating mode or modes. Thus more powerwill be obtained by
usingmode-selectiontechniqueswithin the laser resonator. A I,
second reason for the use of internal mode-selection techniques Fig.14.Schematicrepresentationsofsomeinterferometricschemes
is that one can usually obtain greater selectivity with a given de- for laser resonators with longitudinal mode selectivity. The curves
vice insidethe laser resonator, asit is only necessaryto introduce to the right of each figure show the round-trip loss for radiation in
a loss greater than the gainto completely suppress a n unwanted an empty resonatorwith perfect reflectors (reflectivity
= 100 percent)
and beamsplitters(reflectivityplustransmissivity = 100 percent).
mode. For these reasons, essentially all the techniques we shall For comparison the frequencies of the longitudinal modes of the
discuss are internalmode-selection techniques. same laser resonator with a simple end reflector are indicated.
In Section IVit was pointed out that for a laser with a homo-
geneously broadened resonance line, the elimination of spatial
hole burning may be all thatis required to obtain single-frequency g a s pressure [ 1821. It can beseen by extrapolating these data that
operation [9], [X], [33],[176]-[179]. Tang et al. [9] reported at a pressureof about 10 torr the homogeneous linewidth becomes
what was apparently single-frequency operation of a ruby laser larger than the inhomogenous broadening (about 1600 MHz) and
with a ring resonator when one directionof oscillation was sup- thus one might expect spontaneous single-frequency operation at
pressed so that there was no standing wave within the resonator. these gas pressures. Recent experiments with waveguide gas lasers
Other experimenters have reported eliminatingspatial hole-burn- have demonstrated thatH e N e laser operation ispossible in this
ing effects by physically moving the active medium [32], [176], pressure range, and Smith [183] has reported the observation of
using X/4 plates [ 1771, [178] or 45" rotators [ 1791 to obtain dif- spontaneous single-frequency operation of such a high-pressure
ferentpolarizationsfortheforwardandbackwardtraveling 6328-A He-Ne laser. Similar effects are probably responsible for
waves, and using electrooptic phase modulators within thelaser the spontaneous single-frequency operation of an argon ion laser
resonator [33]. Using these techniques, experimenters have ob- reported by Yarborough and Hobart [184], Bridges and Rigrod
served single-frequencyoperation of the Nd :YAG laser [32], [33], [185], and Borisova and Pyndyk [186]. The experiments of Yar-
[178] and the ruby laser [9], [176], [177], [177a]. The reduction borough and Hobart are particularly noteworthy as they could
of spatial hole burning in optically pumped semiconductorlasers obtain an output power of 2W with 90 percent of the output ina
due to thelarge diffraction losses experiencedby the laser radia- single frequency.
tion canresult in single-frequency operationof these lasers [ 1801. There area number of mode-selection techniquesthat we will
Danielmeyer [181] has shown that if the drift or diffusion rate call interferometric techniques.In each case some type of complex
for the atomsis fast enough, spatial hole-burning effects will be laser resonator using more than two mirrorsis used to provide a
averaged out. Thus although spatial hole burning is important for resonant structure for which onlyone high-Q (low-loss) resonator
solid-state lasers, the effect is usually negligiblefor gas lasers be- mode will be above threshold for laseroscillation. Fig. 14 shows
cause the thermalvelocities of most of the atoms aresufficient for a number of different interferometric mode-selection techniques.
the atoms to traverse several standing-wave maxima ain n excited- The first scheme shown in Fig. 1qa) was originally proposed by
state lifetime. Thus a gas laserwould be expected to operate Kleinman and Kisliuk [3]. The two mirrors at the left-hand end
spontaneously in a single frequency if the spectral hole burning of the laser resonator act as a reflector whose reflectivity varies
due to the inhomogeneouslybroadenedresonance line were with frequency. Thereflectivity of a two-mirror interferometerof
eliminated. Fig. 13 shows recent measurements of the homoge- this typewill have maxima and minima as functions of frequency
neous linewidth of the 6328-A He-Ne laser line as a function of (see, for example, [lOS]). The round-trip loss of the entire laser

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SMITH : MODE SELECTION IN LASERS 429

T 0.9 SAPPHIRE RUBY

SPACERS

Fig. 16. CW rubylaserdesignedforsingle-frequencyoperation

at 4.2”Kand 77°K (after Birnbaum et al. [92]).

the laser resonator. They observed narrow-bandwidth laser out-

put, and later experiments by Pratesi [124] indicate single-fre-

A i IN i-
Fig. 15. Reflectivity versus wavelength for a 3-plate resonant reflector
quency output from a loelement pulsed ruby laser.

for
Fig. 16 is a schematic diagramof a ruby laser system designed
CW operation at4.2’K and 77’K [92]. It uses a combination
designed for use with a ruby laser (after Mahlein and Schoheier of the segmented-laser and resonant-reflectortechniques to
[W). achieve single-frequency operation.
The technique shown in Fig. 1qc) was suggested by Collins
resonator as a function of frequency is shown in Fig. 1qa) to- and White [6] and Manger and Rothe [130], [131], and has been
gether with the positions of the longitudinal resonances of the analyzedin [132]. It has beenused with solid-state lasers [6],
same laser resonator with a simple end reflector. The periodicity [115]-[117], [130], [131], [133]-[137], gas lasers [133], [138],
of the loss is c/2d ,where cis thevelocity of light and dis the spac- [139], dye lasers [140], [141], and parametric oscillators [142].
ing of the two left-hand mirrors. Thewidth of the region of low In this scheme a tilted Fabry-Perot etalon is inserted at a small
loss is governed by the reflectivity of theleft-handmirrors. angle in thelaser resonator. The reflectivity of the composite mir-
Clearly, modes which have frequencies nearthe high-loss regions ror consisting of the tilted etalon and adjacent end mirror cor-
will be discriminated against. By making d sufficiently small, we responds closely to the transmission curve of a simple Fabry-
can arrangeto have only one low-loss region occurring inthe fre- Perot resonator. Thus a narrowregion of high reflectivity can be
quency band over which the laser medium has appreciable gain. obtained by using sufficiently high-reflectivitycoatings on the
We cannot, however, choose mirrorreflectivities which will make etalon. Thespacing betweenthe reflectivity maxima is c/2d where
the low-loss regionas narrow as we wish, and therefore theremay d is the etalon thickness. Therewill be some loss for the favored
be several modes which will oscillate in this low-loss region. The mode or modes, however, due to the “walk-off’ associated with
Kleinman and Kisliuk technique has been analyzed in detail in the tilt of the etalon. For many applications, this loss is low
[3] and [106]-[log] and experimental results have been reported enough to make this technique a useful one (see, for example,
for the 6328-A He-Ne gas laser [4], [110], the argon ion laser [ 1341). Because the walk-off loss increases as thereflectivity of the
[ l l l ] , and solid-state lasers [112]-[117]. Kobayashi and Matsuo etalon surfaces is increased, the technique is used primarily with
[118] have described a modification of this technique which in- lasers for which there is appreciable mode competition, and a low-
volves placing a modulator in the Fabry-Perot interferometer. finesse etalon is sufficient to produce single-frequency operation.
Under suitable conditions they could achieve enhanced mode Single-frequency operation with a low-finesse tilted etalon in the
selectivity. laser resonator has been reported for He-Ne lasers [138], argon
It is also possible to achieve enhanced mode selectivity by ion lasers [133], and solid-state lasers [133], [134]. The use of a
using such interferometers at each end of the laser resonator, as tilted etalon in a ring laser has also been reported [155], [159].
shown in Fig.14(b). By using different interferometer spacingsat Fig. 1qd) shows a Michelson interferometer used as a com-
each end, somewhat narrower low-loss regions can be obtained plex end reflector [143]-[145]. The loss maxima are spaced by
[119]. There have been a numberof experiments with solid-state c/2(dl -d2)where dl and d2 are thespacings of each mirror from
lasers where a number of low-finesse interferometers have been the beam splitter (labeled BS in thefigure). The mode selectivity
used to MITOW the oscillationbandwidth.Whenseverallow- of this device is limited because the reflectivity of the Michelson
finesse etalons are stacked at one end of the resonator,they form interferometer varies sinusoidally with frequency. The ring-laser
a ‘resonant reflector’ which can be designed to have narrow re- analog of this device is discussed in [157] and [159].
gions of high reflectivity 1171, [18], [125]-[129]. Fig. 15 shows The device shown in Fig. 14(e) was originally described by
the theoreticalreflectivity of a resonant reflector with three iden- Fox [21] and Smith [22], and has been used by a number of ex-
tical uncoated optical plates with equal spacing [125]. Note that perimenters to obtain single-frequency operation of gas lasers
the peak reflectivity is only about 85 percent. Because of this low [22], [146]-[153]. As before, the three left-hand mirrors can be
peak reflectivity, the resonant-reflectortechnique is used pri- thought of as a mirror of variable reflectivity. In this case the
marily with relatively high-gain solid-state lasers. Some resonant- reflectivity peaks are spaced by cj2(dl+d2). By increasing the
reflector designconsiderationshave been discussed by Watts reflectivity of the beamsplitter,it is possible to make the width of
[128] and Magyar [129]. the low-loss region as narrow as desired, while maintaining low
Birnbaum and Stocker [120], [I211 and Pratesi et at. [122], “on-resonance” losses for the favored mode. Thisversatility has
[123] have made experiments with segmented ruby lasers where made this technique one of the most used methods of achieving
the ends of the ruby rod acted as low-reflectivity mirrors within single-frequency gas laser operation.

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430 PROCEEDINGSOF THE m e , APRIL 1972

i I +XI2
LENGTH OF MODE ?:,LECTOR

Fig. 19. Single frequency obtained by demodulating the output from

an FM laser. Experimental frequency spectra after Osterink and
Targ [161].

(C)
confocal interferometer can function as a Fox-Smith interferom-
eter, and has demonstrated its use with an argon ion laser.
Fig.17.Experimentaldisplaysoflaser output as a function of the The device shown in Fig. 14(f) has mode-selective properties
length of theFox-Smithmode-selectorinterferometer for three
valuesof thereflectivity R of thebeamsplitter(afterNashand identical to those of the device in Fig. 1 q e ) if the values of beam-
smith [&I). splittertransmissivity and reflectivity areinterchanged [155],
[1561. Ring-laser counterpartsof this device have also been pro-
posed [155], [157].
The device shown in Fig.14(g) was proposed by DiDomenico
and Seidel, and the operation of this device has been demonstrated
with a He-Ne laser [26], [27]. A similar device using a polarizing
prism in place of the beamsplitter has been described by White
[28]. This device operates on a“vernier”principle,and the
favored modes are those that are resonant in both of the two
MI coupled resonators of almost equal length. The regions of low
loss are spaced by c / 2 ( d l - d ~ )where dl and d2 are the distances
from the beamsplitter to the two end mirrors. There has appeared
CONTROL
recently in the literature a comparison of the Fox-Smith inter-
OVEN ferometerandtheDiDomenico-Seidel device [157]. Thecon-
TEMPERATUREJ
ADJUSTMENT clusion of [157] is that appreciably better modeselectivity can be
obtained with the Fox-Smith interferometer. A general mathe-
Fig. 18. Single-frequency argon ion laser using temperature-stabild matical analysis of this type of complex resonator is presented
coated quartz prism to select a single longitudinal resonator mode
(after Rigrod and Johnson [149]). in [158].
Because the amplitude of a laser using any of the previously
described interferometricmode-selection schemes will depend on
Fig. 17 shows the single-frequency output of a long He-Ne the relative tuning of two or more coupled resonators, a number
laser with a Fox-Smith mode selector as a function of the length of workers havedeveloped electronic feedback systems to “lock”
of the mode-selector interferometer. A peak in the laser output these resonators together. Representative systems are described
occurs when there is a coincidenceof a resonator mode with an in [22], [I&], and [147].
interferometer resonance. The overall envelope shows the Lamb It is possible by means of internal modulation to mode-lock a
dip characteristic of single-frequency gas lasers. The width of an set of longitudinal modes of a laser so that the output mode am-
individual peak is a measure of the interferometer detuning re- plitudes and phases correspondto anFM-modulated wave [SI],
quired to introduce a certain loss, and this is a measure of the [1621. We will now discuss severalmode-selection schemes which
selectivity of the mode-selector interferometer. It is clear from can produce essentially single-frequency output from an FM-
Fig. 17 that the selectivity can be adjusted by selecting the re- locked laser. Becausethe single-frequency energyis derived from
flectivity of the beamsplitter. all of the oscillating resonator modes, these techniques in p M -
Rigrod and Johnson [I491used a coated solid quartz prism to ciple should be capable of producing greatersingle-frequency out-
form a mode-selector interferometer of the Fox-Smith type for put than most of the other mode-selection techniques discussed.
use with an argon ionlaser. Their laser system is shown in Fig.18. In practice, however, the output powers obtained with the FM-
By placing the interferometer in a temperature-controlled oven locked laser techniques are comparable with those obtained by
they were able to keep a resonance of the mode-selector stabilized other methods. Fig. 19 illustrates the first of the FM-locked laser
to within T 3 MHz. techniques, which was proposed and demonstrated by Massey
Ring-laser counterpartsof the Fox-Smith interferometer have et al. [19]. By passing the outputof an FM-locked laser through
been discussed by several authors [37], [155], [157], [159], [160] a suitable FM demodulator, Massey et af. [19] showed that they
and experiments have been reported with He-Ne lasers [37] and could recover the “carrier,” i.e., allof the laser output light was
argon ionlasers [ 1601. Sinclair [1541 has described how
an off-axis converted to this single output frequency. The experimentally ob-
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SMITH: MODE SELECTION IN LASERS 43 1

Fig. 21. Outputwavelength as a function of theanglebetweenthe

COUPLING STRENGTH + pumping k a q s for a rhodamine 6G distributed feedback dye laser
Fig. 20. Threshold gain versus coupling strength(size of periodic gain (after Shanket al. [66]).
variation)forseverallongitudinalresonances of a distributed-
feedback resonator. Modes are numbered from the center ofthe
gain curve with N=O being the highest gain mode (after Kogelnik
and Shank [175]).

lo1
served frequency spectra [161] of an FM-locked argon ion gas
laser are shown in Fig. 19 before and after demodulation. It is
clear that essentially single-frequencyoutput was obtained. Weber
and Mathieu [I631 have proposed using a rather complex scheme
to produce single-frequency output from an FM-locked laser at
the second harmonicof the laser frequency. The last FM-locked
laser technique that we shall discuss was proposed and demon-
strated by Harris and McMunry [20]. They used a high-finesse
etalon as oneof the endreflectors of the FM-lockedlaser resona-
tor. This etalonwas tunedto transmit primarily a single resonator
mode. Becausethe FM modulator in the resonatorcouples all the
modes together with a definite amplitude relationship, in theory
all of the multimode power can be obtained in the single-fre-
0 0.5 I.o
quency output. There are various practical difficulties, however,
( v - v ~ ) / A v D+
which limit the usefulness of this technique.
A new type of laser resonator has recently been proposed by hl
Miller [63] and Kogelnik, and demonstrated by Kogelnik and Fig. 22. (a) Use of a resonant absorber in a laser resonator to obtain
Shank [64] and Kaminow et al. [65] .They showed that either a n single-frequency operation.(b) Saturated values of net gain for the
amplitude (gain) gratingor a phase grating withinthe (solid) laser laser in (a) normalized to the fixed (nonsaturable) resonator losses
medium can be used to form a “distributed-feedback” resonator, (GI[)for a single frequency oscillating at line center ( y o ) . AVOis the
which will have low losses only over narrow
a bandof frequencies. assumed to be the same for both the gain and the absorber media
(after Bennett [166]).
Kogelnik and Shank [175] have made a detailed analysis of the
behavior of a distributed-feedback laser considering both gain
and refractive indexperiodicites.. Fig. 20 shows the resultsof their lation of both gainand index of refraction to create a distributed-
calculations for the thresholdsof various longitudinal resonator feedback grating within thelaser medium. The advantageof this
modes for a distributed-feedback laser in which there is a periodic system is that the frequency of the resonator formed by this dis-
variation of the gain. It can be seen that for a range of coupling tributed-feedback grating can be tuned by changing the anglebe-
strengths, the threshold for thesecond resonator mode is almost tween the two interfering pump beams. Using a solution of rhoda-
20 dB higher than that for thehighest gain mode (because of the mine 6G in ethanol, Shank er at. were able to observe narrow-
way in which they defined gain, their threshold gain for thelowest band laser oscillation over a tuning range of 640 A as the angle
order mode at high coupling strengthsis actually less than zero). between the pumping beams was varied. Fig. 21 is a plot of their
Thus in theory a single-frequency distributed feedback laser can results.
be built which remains single-frequency even when pumped 1 0 0 Chebotayev et al. [38] and Lee et a/. [39] have discussed the
times above threshold.In practice, the distributed-feedbacklasers use of a resonant absorberin the laser resonator to obtainsingle-
which have been built exhibit narrow-bandwidth, but not single- frequency operation. This techniqueis illustrated in Fig. 22. The
frequency output. Output frequency widths of 0.1 A have been operation is one of mode selection and is much more selective
reportedfordistributed-feedbackdye laser‘s which havegain thanthecoarse frequency selectivity obtained by usingagas
bandwidths of several hundred angstroms. Shank er a/. [66] have absorption to prevent laser oscillation in the absorptionband of
pumped an organicdye laser with two crossedcoherent light thegas (see, forexample [35], [ B ] , [60]). Mode-selectionex-
beams. The interferenceof these beams producesa spatial modu- periments have been reported withthe 6328-A He-Ne laser using
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 432 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, APRIL 1972

heating of the metal limin thehigh-power lasers. One methodof

overcoming this problem is the use of a thin nonabsorbing dif-
-d- fracting film [1691, [1701. The use of metal films with other mode-
selection schemes is discussed in [ 1704.
fa1
Several authors have reported mode selection caused by in-
jection of radiationintothe laser resonator.DeShazer and
Maunders [188] have obtained narrow-band operation of a Nd :
glass laser by injecting a beamof narrow-band light into thelaser.
Bondarenko et a f . [189], [ 1901 obtained single-frequency opera-
tion of a Q-switched ruby laserby a similar technique. Bjorkholm
and Danielmeyer [191] have obtained single-frequency oscillation
of a pulsed parametric oscillator by injecting a signal from a
single-frequency Nd:YAG laser into the parametric oscillator
Fig. 23. (a) Absorbing film technique of longitudinal mode selection. resonator.Singleaxial-modeoscillation w a s alsoobservedby
(b) Reflectance of absorbing film-mirror combination versus tuning
(after Smith et al. [MI). Briquet et al. [ 1921 with a Nd :glass laser pumped by second har-
monic light from another Nd:glass laser.
There have been a number of reports of the observation of
a discharge of pure Ne as the resonant absorber[38], [39], [164] single-frequency or narrow-bandwidth operation of Q-switched
and a theoretical explanation of the results based on Lamb’s the- lasers when a bleachable dyeis placed in the laser resonator [ 171,
ory of a gas laserhas been given[ 1651. The experiments have been [91], [115], [171]-[173]. Sooy [23] has explained this as a tran-
carried out, however, at power levels well above those for which sient effect where the first mode above threshold grows more
Lamb’s theory would be expected to be valid. Bennett [166] has rapidly than the others over a number of resonator transits and
given an explanation for these observations in terms of a “hole- is the only mode to attainappreciable intensity within the dura-
burning” model of gain saturation. He shows that for a suitable tion of the pumping pulse.
choice of loss characteristics, itis possible t o predict, on the bsis A unique and as yet unexplained single-frequency technique
of his model, behavior similar to that observed experimentally was reported by Forsyth [187], who found that if the 4880-A and
[38], [39], [164]. Fig. 22(b) shows Bennett’s results for the satu- 5145-A radiationfrom an argon ion laser were resonated in
rated net gain as a function of frequency (when the laser is oscil- separate resonators, single-frequency output could be obtained
lating at a single frequencyat line center) for various values of a at 5145 A.
parameter a,which measures the relative effect of the saturable Prisms [54] and diffraction gratings [29], [55]-[58] have been
absorber [166]. It can be seen that for values of a>O.7, the gain used as dispersive elementsin laser resonators, but their frequency
is below threshold forall modes except the favored mode. selectivity is usually not large enough to consider them in the
A Lyot filter consists of a length of birefringent material with category of mode-selective techniques. They are much used in dye
polarizers on either side. High transmission occurs onlyfor those lasers, however, t o narrow the output bandwidth, and in COP
wavelengths for which the rotation of the polarized light passing lasers, to restrict the oscillation to a single laser line.
through the birefringent material is such that it is transmitted
VII. FREQUENCY STABILIZATION OF SINGLE-FREQUENCY LASERS
through the second polarizer with low loss. By using such a Lyot
filter in the resonator of a broad-bandwidth laser, it is possible The frequency stability of a n unstabilizedsingle-frequency
to obtain somedegree of mode selectivity. If an electrooptic crys- laser is determined by its environment. Evenif the laser resonator
tal is used as the birefringent element, it is possible to tune the is made of a low-thermalexpansion-coefficientmaterial such as
laser output frequency simply by varying the voltage applied to Invar, a change of ambient temperature of 1°C will change the
the crystal. Using such afilter, Walther and Hall[61] obtained a frequency of a laser oscillating the in visible region of the spectrum
dye laser output bandwidth of 0.01 A, and Cirkovic e t a f . [62] by about 500 MHz.Mechanicalfluctuations or air pressure
obtained narrow-linewidth emission from a ruby laser. changes which affect the resonator length also have a large effect,
Because the standing-wave patterns of different longitudinal for a change in optical length of of an optical wavelength will
modes have nullsat different points alongthe axis of the resona- change the laser frequency by c/2L-the longitudinal mode spac-
tor, a thin absorbingfilm placed in a laser resonator as shownin ing. This is 150 MHz for a1-m resonator.
Fig. 23(a) will preferentially absorb thosemodes which have ap- Clearly the frequency stability of a laser can be improved by
preciable electric fields in thefilm. The mode with a standing-wave reducing these environmental effects : building mechanicallystable
null at thefilm will experience little loss if the film is a small frac- resonators shielded from air pressure fluctuations, etc. (See, for
tion of an optical wavelength thick. This techniquewas proposed example, [50], [193].) It has often been found more practical,
and demonstrated by Troitskii and Goldina [42], [167]. They ob- however, to buildelectronicfeedbacksystems to stabilize the
tained single-frequency operation with 6238-A H e N e lasers [42] laser. There has been a great dealof work on such feedback sys-
and argon ion lasers [43]. Smith et af. [55] presented a detailed tems and in this section we will discuss some representative ex-
theory of the absorbing-film mode selector. Their results for a amples. For further information, the readeris referred to the re-
150-A metal film are shown in Fig. 23(b). Smith et af. [44]also view articles of Birnbaum [195], [196],Polanyi and Tobias [197],
reported single-frequency operationof the argon ion laser and the and Basov and Letokhov [198].
Nd:YAG laser using thin metal films in the laser resonator. A
similar theoretical treatment has been given by Troitskii [168], A . Stabilization to an External Resonator
who also compared the absorbing-film technique with other mode- Fig. 24 shows a simple feedback systemfor stabilizing a laser
selection schemes. He concluded that thetechnique is most useful to anexternal Fabry-Perot interferometer resonance. This system
for relatively low-power lasers, and other schemes must be used is described in [22]. We have considered a case wherethe laser is
to obtainefficient high-power operation.The reason forthis is the oscillating in a number of longitudinal modes, and the Fabry-
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SMITH: MODE SELECTION IN LASERS 433

MATCHING PIEZOELECTRIC
LENS DECOUPLER APERTURE CERAMIC

-+-
L-----* ------- A
I

Fig. 24. Stabilization of a laser to an externalFabry-Perotinter-

ferometerwhichisalsoused to select a singlefrequencyofthe
multimode laser output (after Smith[22]).

Perot interferometer serves not only as a frequency reference, but

DC
also asa filter to transmit a single laser frequency. The electronic AkRFlER
feedback system operates as follows: The resonant frequency of
the Fabry-Perot interferometeris modulated at an audio rate, and
the effect of this on the output power is monitored with a detector.
When the laser output drifts to one side of the interferometer re-
sponse, the outputwill be amplitude modulated at the audio fre-
quency of the modulation. At resonance, there will be no signal
at this audio frequency (but one at twice the frequency). On the
other side of the interferometer resonance, a fundamentalsignal
of the opposite phase will be produced. Thus a phase-sensitive
detector tunedto this audio frequency may be used t o derive from
the laser output a dc signal whose amplitude is proportional to
the deviation from thecenter of the interferometer response, and
whose sign dependson the directionof this deviation. Thissignal,
when suitably amplified, may be used to control the frequencyof FREQUENCY +
the laser resonator so that the outputis stabilized on the center of
the Fabry-Perot interferometer response. (bl
In a manner similar to that described in the preceding para- Fig. 25. (a) Stabilization of a laser to the resonance of an external
graph, it is possible to stabilize the frequency of a laser which is absorption cell. (b) Absorber response in the presence of an axial
made single-frequency by usingone of the interferometric mode- magnetic field(after White[ 1941).
selection schemes shownin Fig. 14, by locking the frequency ato
resonance of the mode-selector resonator [22], [146], [147]. This gives the directionof the drift. The phase-sensitive detectoris then
has the advantage that the laser is also stabilized against appli- used to generate the error signal which is amplified and applied
tude fluctuations due to relative the frequency displacement of the to a piezoelectric ceramic which controls the length of the laser
laser frequency and themode-selector resonance. Because of the cavity. By beating together two independently stabilized lasers,
problems of long-term drift, however, all of these systemsare pri- White [194] measured the frequency stability of his lasers to be
marily useful for frequency stabilization onlywhen used in com- one part in lo9.
bination with one of the atomic-resonance systems described in TomlinsonandFork [200] havestabilizeda He-Ne laser
the following. oscillating on the 1.52-pm neon line by utilizing the mode com-
petition between two oppositely circularly polarized laser resona-
B. Stabilization to an Atomic or Molecular Resonance tor modes. For the 1.52-pm neon line, the mode competition is a
We will outline three representative systems. function of the applied magnetic field. For fields of a few gauss,
White et al. [194], [199] have described a system whichstabi- a verysharp variationof mode intensity versuslaser tuning occurs
lizes the frequency of a 6328-A He-Ne laser to the center of the at thecenter of the atomic resonance line. This is demonstrated in
atomic absorption profile of a pure neon discharge. The system Fig. 26(a) which shows the intensity of the right- and left-circu-
is illustrated in Fig. 25(a). The plane-polarized beamfrom asingle- larly polarized laser modes as a functionof laser tuning. y o is the
mode Brewster-window gas laser is switched alternately to right- atomic resonance frequency. From this mode-competition “cross-
and left-circularly polarized light by means of aKDP electrooptic over,’’ Tomlinson and Fork derived a signal which they used to
switch driven by a 400-Hz square-wave voltage. The circularly stabilize the laser frequency. Fig. 26(b) shows the beat frequency
polarized light passes through the neon absorption cell which is between two independent lasers stabilized in this manner. The
in anaxial magnetic field of approximately 350 G . average frequencies (1O-s averages) correspond to a standard de-
As illustrated in Fig. 25(b), this magnetic field splits the ab- viation of one part in 10*Oper laser.
sorption profile for right- and left-circularly polarized light. The Recently, Bargerand Hall and their colleagues have developed
400-Hz signal detected by the photodetector thus has an ampli- a laser with a very high frequency stability and resetability [40],
tude which increases as the laser frequency drifts away from the [41]. They utilized as a reference a resonance of the methane
neon atomic resonance
Authorized frequency
licensed use y o ) and Taiwan
limited to:(National the phase of this
University. signal on(CH,)
Downloaded Marchmolecule which coincides
27,2025 at 07:44:00 almost
UTC from IEEE exactly
Xplore. with apply.
Restrictions the 3.39-pm
434 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, APRIL 1972

t
u)
z
w
-c
2

0-

Fig. 28. Beat frequency between two independent methane-

stabilized lasers (after Hall [210J).

tion, and has width

a of about 2 MHz, as shown in the expanded-
scale data in Fig. 27(b). In later experiments, linewidths as narrow
as 50 kHz havebeen obtained [201]. By modulating the resonator
length by a small amount and detecting the component of the
IO SEC AVERAQS laser output at the modulation frequency, a derivative signal can
be obtained for stabilizing the lasert o the center of the methane
resonance.
Because the methane resonance frequency is insensitive t o
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
TIME W I N ) magnetic and electrical fields, and because the cross sectionis so
large that appreciable absorption will occur in ‘a low-pressure
tb) absorption cell where pressure effects are minimized and the ab-
Fig. 26. (a) Right- and left-circularly polarized output intensities aS a sorption linewidth is very MITOW,very precise frequencycontrol
function of laser tuning. (b) Beat frequency between two indepen- is possible. A frequency reproducibility of 5 parts in 10’2 and a
dently stabilizedlasers (afterTomlinson and Fork[m]). short-term frequency stability of better than 1 part in lola have
been achieved with this system[201]. Fig. 28 shows the beat fre-
quency between two independent methane-stabilized lasers. We
will describe in the next section how such lasers have beenused
for precision interferometry.
m.USES OF LASERSWlTH MODESELECTION
we will briefly describe some applications where
In this section
lasers using mode-selection techniques havebeen used to achieve
results that would have been impossible to obtain with highly
multimode lasers, or with conventional light sources.
A . Light-Scattering Experiments
In recent years, a large numberof light-scattering experiments
using lasers have been reported (for a recent review of such ex-
periments see [202]). If the features in such experiments have a
width of less than about 500 MHz in the visible region of the
spectrum, thensevere instrumental broadeningwill occur if a con-
ventional multimode laser source is used, and some formof laser
mode control is required. The high resolution which can be ob-
tained with single-frequency lasersis necessary,in particular, for
u+ Brillouin scatteringexperiments.Single-frequencylasershave
(b)
been used to observe W o u i n spectra of gasses [203], liquids
Fig. 27. (a) Output of 3.39-fl neon laser with a methane absorber in [204], [205], and solids [206].
laser resonator as a function of frequency. (b) Expanded region Yeh andKeeler [207] haverecentlyproposedthatlight-
around the methane absorption frequency (after Barger and Hall
scattering experiments performed with a high-power single-fre-
WI). quency laser could be used to studyfast chemical reactions.

H e N e laser line.By placing agas cell containing methane within B. Mode Selection for Laser Holography
the laser cavity they were able t o observe the inverse “Lamb dip” To obtain a good hologramusing a laser light source it is de-
-an increase in laser output power at the frequency for which sirable to have both high laser output power and a long coherence
both travelingwaves in the laser resonator interact with the same length. Thehigh poweris required in ordert o be able t o make the
group of methane atoms(see the explanation for a conventional hologram with a reasonably short exposure time, and the long
Lamb dipin Section IV). Fig. 27(a) shows the outputof a 3.39-pm coherence lengthis required i f a hologram with appreciable depth
He-Ne Authorized
laser containing a methane cell as a function of tuning. of fieldis desired. This is because the light scattered from the back
licensed use limited to: National Taiwan University. Downloaded on March 27,2025 at 07:44:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
The MITOW feature near line center is due to the methane absorp- of the objectof which a hologramis to be made must be coherent
SMITH: MODE IN LASERS 435

100 HIGH-FINESSE
ETALON
4t
ETALON

4 It I
I I I
IO 20 30 40 0 80 160240 3 2 0 4 0 0 4 8 0 5 6 0 6 4 0
OPTICALPATHDIFFERENCE (cm) TIME (HOURS)

Fig. 29. Visibility of interference fringes formed by splitting the output Fig. 30. Earth strain as a function of time as measured with the 30-m
beam of an argon ion laser with an internal Fabry-Perot etalon and underground interferometer (see text) (after Levine and Hall 12101).
recombining the two beams with a given path length difference. In
all cases the output power was 5 mW (after Lin and LoBianco[208]).

with the light scattered from the front of the object in order t o
obtain a sharp reconstruction.
Light with a frequency width of Av has a coherence lengthof
approximately cl(2Av). Light from an argon ion laser with no
mode selection will have a coherence lengthof about 5 cm. Thus
in orderto use an argon laser to make holograms with a depth of
field of greater than about 5 cm, some form of mode selection 0 100 200 300
400
500
600 700 800 900 1000

must be used to narrow the output bandwidth. Av (MHz) +

Lin and LoBianco [208] have plotted the visibility of inter- Fig. 31. Hyperfinestructure of the P (117) 21-1 B+-X transition Of
ference fringesas a functionof optical path difference between the molecular iodine observed by laser saturation spectroscopy (after
two interferring beams for an argon ion laser with a tilted Fabry- Hansch et ul. [222]).
Perot etalon as a modeselector in the laser resonator. Their re-
sults are shown in Fig. 29. It can be seen that, although with no
measuring the difference in wavelength by interferometric tech-
etalon in the resonator the coherence length (path difference for
niques. They estimate that they will be able to measure c with a
which fringevisibility drops to 50 percent) is approximately 5 cm,
probable error of 1X lo-*.
with a sufficiently high-finesse etalon, a coherence length of much The high reproducibility (5x10’2) which has been achieved
greater than40 cm was obtained. Note that for many holographic
with these methane-stabilizedlasers suggests that this typeof sys-
applications it is not necessary to produce single-frequency laser
tem may some day become not onlythe new standard of length,
operation-it is just necessary to obtain a narrow enough band-
but also of time.
width to obtain the required depthof field.
Currie [209] has shown that with an essentially single-fre- D. High-Resolution Laser Spectroscopy
quency laser, a hologram with a depth of field of 2.9 m could be In recent years,there hasbeen a great deal of interest in the use
produced. of lasers for high-resolution absorption spectroscopy.Many
workers [7], [150], [212]-[220] haveusedobservationsofthe
C . Laser Interferometry Lamb dip in the tuning curve of a single-frequency gas laser to
Using frequency-stabilized 3.39-pm single-frequency lasers of study the homogenous lineshape of the laser transition. By placing
the type discribed in Section VII, Hall and his colleagues [210] a n absorbing gas within a single-frequencylaser, it is possible t o
have been able to study minute earth movements with a long- observe the inverse Lamb dip as the laser is tuned over the ab-
baseline interferometer. sorption line(s) of the sample gas. In this way Hanes and Dahl-
A 30-m interferometer was set up in an unworked gold mine trom [221], using a 6328-A He-Ne laser, were able to observe
in Colorado. Using an electronic servo loop, a single-frequency fourteen of the hyperfine components of one rotational vibra-
laser was locked to a resonance of this interferometer.By beating tional line of 12712. Similar data canbe obtained from crossed-beam
the frequency of this laser with the output of a reference laser experiments external to the laser cavity. By crossing two beams
which was stabilized to the methane resonance, a signal propor- from a tunable single-frequency laser in an external absorption
tional to thechanges in interferometer length couldbe obtained. cell, it is possible to obtain saturated absorption spectra without
This system is capable of recording not only long-term changes insome of the constraints imposed by placing the absorbing gas
the earth’s strain field, but also rock tides, and the relatively high within the laser cavity [182]. Hansch et ai. [222] have used this
frequencies associated with seismic events [210]. Fig. 30 shows technique to investigate the completehyperfinestructure of a
700 h of a record of rock tides obtained with this instrument. molecular iodine line. They used a krypton ionlaser which incor-
Microseismicfluctuationshavebeenremovedwithalow-pass porated an intraresonator etalonto obtain single-frequency opera-
filter. tion. Fig. 31 shows the results that they obtained. It can be seen
Using the same interferometer, Hall et af. [211] propose to that they have achieved a resolution in excess of los. Such ex-
measureAuthorized
thevelocity of light by simultaneously measuringthe fre- tremely high resolutions have only been achieved by the use of
licensed use limited to: National Taiwan University. Downloaded on March 27,2025 at 07:44:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
quency differencebetween a pair of closely spacedlaser lines, and narrow-bandwidth laser sources.
436 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE,APRIL 1972

There is clearly a need for narrow-bandwidth laser sources [ll] -, “Diffraction lossand selection of modes in maser resonators
with wide tuning ranges for use in laser spectroscopy. Basically, with circular mirrors,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 44, pp. 917-932,
May-June, 1965.
the tuning range is limited by the frequency width of the laser [12] A. G . Fox and T. Li, “Effect of gain saturation on the oscillating
gain curve. Hinkley[223] has described a tunable single-frequency modes of optical masers,” IEEE J . Quantum Electron., vol. QE-2,
semiconductor diode laser which he hasused to obtain the absorp- pp. 774-783, Dec. 1966.
tion spectrum of SF6 in the 10-pmregion of the spectrum. Patel [13] E. I. Gordon and A. D. White, “Single frequency gas lasers at
6328A,” Proc. IEEE (Corresp.), vol. 52, pp. 206-207, Feb. 1964.
ef ul. [224] have demonstrated the usefulness of the tunable spin- [14] K.M.Baird, D. S. Smith, G. R. Hanes, and S. Tsunekane,
flip Raman laser for infrared spectroscopy by using it toobserve “Characteristics of asimplesingle-mode He-Ne laser,” Appi.
the absorption spectrum ofNH8 in the 12-pm region of the spec- Opt., vol. 4, pp. 569-571, May 1965.
trum. They demonstrated that they could obtain higher resolution [15] D. Gloge, J. Helmcke, and P. Runge, “A stable gas laser with a
than that attainablewith a conventional grating spectrometer.In single emission frequency,”Frequenz, vol. 18, pp. 367-374, NOV.
1964.
recent experiments [225], a spin-flip laser spectrometer used for [16] J. A. Collinson, “A stable, single-frequency RF-excitedgas laser
air pollution studies has been shown capable of detecting concen- at 6328A,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 44, pp. 1511-1519, Sept. 1965.
trations of NO of less than 0.01 ppm in theatmosphere. [17] M. Hercher, “Single-mode operationof a Q-switched ruby laser,”
Dye lasers have very large gain bandwidths in the visible re- Appl. Phys. Lett.,vol. 7, pp. 39-41, July 1965.
[I81 J. M. Burch, “Design of resonators,” in Quantum Electronics 111,
gion of the spectrum.Recently, several authors [61], [226], [227] P. Grivet and N. Bloembergen, E&. New York: Columbia
have reported theuse of mode-selective techniques t o obtain tun- Univ. Press, 1964, pp. 1187-1202.
able narrow-bandwidth dye-laser output. Walther and Hall [61] [19] G . A.Massey,M. K.Oshman, and R. T&g, “Generationof
obtained a dye laser spectral output of approximately 0.01 A by single-frequency light using theFM laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol.
6, pp. 10-11, Jan. 1965.
using a birefringent filter (Lyot filter) in the laser cavity. Using [20] S. E. Harris and B. J. McMurtry, “Frequency selective coupling
this laser for spectroscopic studies of the sodium D l line, they to the FM laser,’’ Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 7, pp. 265-267, Nov.
were able to observe line broadening due to saturation. Hansch 1965.
[226] has described the use of several mode-selective techniques [21] A. G. Fox, “Optical maser mode selector,” U. S . Patent 3 504 299.
t o obtain a dye laser spectral output ofless than 0.004 A. Using [22] P.W. Smith,“Stabilized,single-frequencyoutputfromalong
laser cavity,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. QE-1, pp. 343-
such a laser, he hasobserved the hyperfine structure of the sodium 348, Nov. 1965.
Dl and D Zlines with a resolution of better than 40 MHz [227]. [23] W. R.Sooy,“Thenaturalselectionofmodesinapassive Q-
By using such a laser locked to thehydrogen Balmer alpha line, switched laser,” Appl. Phys. Len., vol. 7, pp. 36-37, July 1965.
Hansch et al. [228] speculate that the Rydberg constant could be [24] T. Li and P. W. Smith, “Mode selection and mode volume en-
hancement in a gas laser with internal lens,” Proc. IEEE (Cor-
measured to one partin 2 X lo*. resp.), vol.53, pp. 399-400, Apr. 1965.
It seems clear that the future holds great promise for tunable (251 A.E.Siegman,“Unstableopticalresonatorsfor laser applica-
laser spectroscopy. tions,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 53, pp. 277-287, Mar. 1965.
[26] M.DiDomenico,Jr.,“Asingle-frequencyTEM(OO)-mode gas
IX. CONCLUDING REMAF~KS laser with highoutput power,” Appl. Phys.Lett., vol. 8, pp. S 22 ,
Jan. 1966.
We have attemptedto review in a tutorial fashion thefield of [27] -, “Characteristics of a single-frequencyMichelson-type
He-Negas laser,” IEEE J . Quantum Electron., vol. QE-2, pp.
mode selection in lasers, and have concentrated primarily on those 311-322, Aug. 1966.
schemes which are capable of producing single-frequency laser (281 A. D. White, “Laser cavities with increased axial mode separa-
operation. Our discussion of specific techniques hasbeen of neces- tion,” Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 45, pp. 339-343, Feb. 1966.
sity brief,but we have provideda fairly complete set of references.[29] W. Q. Jeffers, “Single wavelength operation of a pulsed water-
vapor laser,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 178-180, Sept. 1967.
[30] Yu.A.Ananev,N.A.Sventsitskaya, and V. E.Sherstobitov,
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