Instabilities and chaotic emission of far‐infrared NH3‐lasers

We have used optically pumped NH3‐far‐infrared lasers to investigate self pulsing instabilities and transition to chaotic emission, theoretically predicted to occur for homogeneously broadened lasers high above threshold when the 3 characteristic times of the laser: decay time of population, polarization, and field, are of comparable magnitude. We have observed pulsing instabilities and chaotic emission from these systems for the first time and find qualitative agreement with the laser dynamics predicted from the simplest laser model (Lorenz equations).