title: Non-Gibbsian stochastic light-mode dynamics of passive mode locking.
abstract: We study a stochastic light-mode system with non-Gibbsian steady state statistics, unravelling global nonequilibrium phase transition properties. It relates to the onset of passive mode-locking in the general case of lasers with arbitrary dispersion and Kerr nonlinearity that includes the nonsolitonic regime. The solution is facilitated by a special stationarity criterion imposed by the system gain balance. We show that the mode-locking phase transition is generic, and give exact expressions for the pulse power and its stability map. We find that at the boundary of the mode-locking stability the pulse power is exactly one half of the total intracavity power, and that the parameter region for the most resistant pulses against noise destabilization is not at the soliton condition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: Omri
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gat
authors.forename: Baruch
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fischer