title: Inhibition of modulation instability in lasers by noise.
abstract: It is shown that additive noise can inhibit modulation instability in laser equations of motion. A related self-starting condition for pulsation is obtained by employing a fluctuation--dissipation relation between noise and losses and a statistical mechanics approach. Entropy considerations are shown to play a crucial role. The quantum limit for self-starting is estimated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel. gariel@tx.technion.ac.il
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Baruch
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fischer