Influence of spontaneous emission on the threshold longitudinal pump power of dye lasers

The stimulated emission threshold of a dye laser was found to depend on the method of formation of a longitudinal pulsed laser beam used as the pump. Excitation with a focused pump beam reduced the lasing threshold. The effect was strongest when the Q factor of the resonator cavity was low. This reduction in the lasing threshold by focusing the pump laser beam was attributed to an increase in the rate of spontaneous emission resulting from lasing of desqueezed states (enhancement of 'zero-field' fluctuations responsible for the appearance of spontaneous emission). An increase in the spontaneous emission rate reduced the buildup time of stimulated emission during the early stages and thus reduced the lasing threshold.