title: Formation and annihilation of laser light pulse quanta in a thermodynamic-like pathway.
abstract: We present a theoretical and experimental study of multiple pulse formation in passively mode-locked lasers. Following a statistical-mechanics approach, the study yields a thermodynamic-like "phase diagram" with boundaries representing cascaded first order phase transitions. They correspond to abrupt creation or annihilation of pulses and a quantized rf power behavior, as system parameters (noise and/or pumping levels) are varied, in excellent accordance with the experiments. Remarkably, individual pulses carry an almost constant quantum of energy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vodonos
authors.forename: Rafi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weill
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bekker
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Smulakovsky
authors.forename: Omri
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gat
authors.forename: Baruch
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fischer