Intensity-noise suppression due to longitudinal mode coupling in multimode intracavity-doubled lasers
Phys. Rev. A 114, 033503 – Published 2 September, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gf5b-vn5p
Abstract
Multimode intracavity frequency-doubled lasers can reach states of intensity-noise suppression orders of magnitude beyond the predictions of independent-mode partition statistics. I show that the coupled-wave dynamics in the doubling crystal obey a dissipation inequality: a fourth-moment functional of the intracavity intensity decreases monotonically under each forward nonlinear pass, driving the mode ensemble toward a constant-intensity manifold. This per-pass result is a strict Lyapunov inequality, and round-trip simulations show attraction to the same low-, nearly constant-intensity state under the full cavity dynamics. I confirm the mechanism in an intracavity frequency-doubled laser with a lithium triborate (LBO) doubling crystal, observing a contrast between full and Fabry-Perot-filtered output noise at fixed detector bandwidth, well beyond the statistical-averaging baseline. The argument depends only on the algebraic structure of the coupling: a coherent superposition of oscillators that share a quadratic dissipative channel. It therefore points to a general Lyapunov route to intensity-noise suppression in coupled oscillator systems, beyond the intracavity-doubled laser.