Self-phase locking in lasers with homogeneously broadened emission lines

It is shown by numerical analysis based on Lamb's equations of motion, that standing-wave lasers with purely homogeneously broadened emission lines exhibit regular multimode oscillations. Specifically, modes lying far from the line center are quenched due to mode competition, and the amplitudes of the oscillating modes approach steady-state values. The stabilization of the amplitudes is normally accompanied, or followed, by an evolution of the phases towards a phase-locked regime, where the relative phases attain either the value 0 or + or - pi. The build-up times for the relative phases are found to vary over a wide range.