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RESEARCH PRODUCT

INSTABILITIES IN DOPPLER BROADENED OPTICALLY PUMPED FAR-INFRARED LASERS

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Recently Weiss and Brock observed Lorenz-type chaos in the 81.5μm emission from an optically-pumped 14NH3 laser1. The theoretical interpretation of the experimental results is an open question, however. In fact, the Lorenz-Haken model refers to incoherently pumped lasers with homogeneously-broadened two-level active media2. Models based on (at least) a three-level system are needed to describe optically-pumped lasers, whose dynamics is known to reduce to that of the Lorez-Haken model under certain limiting conditions3. But these conditions are not met in the 14NH3 laser, and indeed theoretical predictions of a model for this laser, which considered a homogeneously-broadened three-level active medium4, revealed striking differences with the experimental observations1.