We use amplitude-modulation techniques to investigate the response of a multimode dye laser when its pump intensity is sinusoidally amplitude modulated. A theoretical model is presented based on a Floquet analysis to obtain the stationary-state first-harmonic response of the population inversion and that of the laser intensity as a function of modulation frequency. We perform experiments in multimode continuous-wave dye lasers to demonstrate the validity of this theory in describing the behavior of multimode lasers operating near the lasing threshold.

• Received 13 March 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.40.1858