Radiation Lifetime in a CavityLaser radiation in a cavity will have a finite lifetime because of losses at the cavity walls. The decay of a radiation mode can be expressed as For cavity dimension L and reflection coefficient a, the time to make n reflections is After n reflections, the radiation intensity is which gives for the lifetime: Using the series approximation leads to This cavity lifetime is one of the parameters which determines the pumping power which must be used to maintain a given level of radiation from a laser. |
Index Laser concepts Reference Rohlf Sec. 13-5 | ||
|
Go Back |