A quantum statistical analysis of phase-locked coupled light beams is presented with the coupling mechanism between the individual modes provided by the time-modulated dielectric constant of the crystal inserted in the cavity. The intense electric field that drives the modulator is treated classically. A Hamiltonian including the modulator interaction is formulated and the Heisenberg equations of motion of the mode operators are solved utilizing a generating function of the mode operators. The evolution in time of the phase-space distribution functions for single and multiple modes is derived under various initial conditions. Initially coherent oscillating modes are shown to conserve their coherent character. Below threshold, the modes are assumed to be chaotic Gaussian. It is shown that when all modes have the same average number of photons, they remain uncorrelated Gaussian. When the average photon numbers are nonidentical, the field remains a pure noise field, but the various modes are correlated. The analysis of the resonant-case mode of operation, properly interpreted, leads directly to the case of nonresonant modulation.

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