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Peter Muys

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Muys.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2021

Light and thermodynamics: the three-level laser as an endoreversible heat engine

In the past, a number of heat engine models have been devised to apply the principles of thermodynamics to a laser. The best one known is the model using a negative temperature to describe population inversion. In this paper, we present a new temperature scale not based on reservoir temperatures. This is realized by revealing a formal mathematical similarity between the expressions for the optimum power generated by an endoreversible heat engine and the optimum output-coupled power from a three-level laser resonator. As a consequence, the theory of endoreversibility can be applied to enable a new efficiency analysis of the cooling of high-power lasers. We extend the endoreversibility concept also to the four-level laser model.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2021

Thermodynamics of a chemical reaction model for the atom-field interaction in a three-level laser

The temporal evolution of the levels in a three-level laser is macroscopically described by a closed set of rate equations. Here, we complement this picture by providing a model which describes through chemical reactions how the levels are evolving. In most textbooks, the chemical potential is introduced as a concept in quantum statistics. In this paper, we alternatively base its definition on population densities of the excited states in a dopant atom. Then the chemical reaction model delivers a clear and intuitive framework to define the further thermodynamic characteristics of the atom-field interactions such as the chemical potential of the photon and the photon entropy.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2011

Tha angular spectrum representation of vectorial laser beams

The angular spectrum of a vectorial laser beam is expressed in terms of an intrinsic coordinate system instead of the usual Cartesian laboratory coordinates. This switch leads to simple, elegant and new expressions such as for the angular spectrum of the Hertz vector corresponding to the electromagnetic fields. As an application of this approach, we consider axially symmetric vector beams, showing non-diffracting properties of these beams, without invoking the paraxial approximation. Further, we indicate the relevance of the method for analyzing nonparaxial resonators, such as microresonators

physics.optics↗
arXiv2009

The athermal Laser

A new laser concept is presented, called the athermal laser, unifying all the hitherto known implementations of radiative laser cooling.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2007

Stimulated radiative laser cooling

Building a refrigerator based on the conversion of heat into optical energy is an ongoing engineering challenge. Under well-defined conditions, spontaneous anti-Stokes fluorescence of a dopant material in a host matrix is capable of lowering the host temperature. The fluorescence is conveying away a part of the thermal energy stored in the vibrational oscillations of the host lattice. In particular, applying this principle to the cooling of (solid-state) lasers opens up many potential device applications, especially in the domain of high-power lasers. In this paper, an alternative optical cooling scheme is outlined, leading to radiative cooling of solid-state lasers. It is based on converting the thermal energy stored in the host, into optical energy by means of a stimulated nonlinear process, rather than a spontaneous process. This should lead to better cooling efficiencies and a higher potential of applying the principle for device applications.

physics.optics↗