Quantum theory of laser and optical-bistability instabilities

We present the first reported fully quantum-mechanical theory of laser/optical-bistability instabilities that shows how cavity side modes grow from spontaneous emission. Because of three-wave mixing, a two-peaked spontaneous-emission spectrum is obtained in contrast to the three-peaked spectrum of resonance fluorescence. The theory is a multimode extension of Scully-Lamb theory that shows how population pulsations, combination tones, mode locking, and phase conjugation occur with quantum-mechanical fields.