Experimentally accessible periodic pulsations of a single-mode homogeneously broadened laser (the Lorenz model)

We discuss the appearance of stable pulsation patterns and hysteresis effects in a single-mode, homogeneously broadened ring laser for values of the pump parameter both near and below the instability threshold. These periodic solutions develop when the ratio of the population decay rates is sufficiently smaller than unity. Their pulsation frequency is calculated analytically with very good accuracy.