Pulsed dressed-state lasers

We present a theory of pulsed dressed-state lasers that operate on an inverted transition between dressed states of a coupled atom-field system and are pumped by short laser pulses. We discuss the validity of the adiabatic approach in such a case and generalize the theory beyond the adiabatic approximation. With the help of the generalized theory, we study the competition between various lasing processes, the role of higher-order instabilities, and the role of temporal interference effects. We formulate the physical interpretation of the results by looking at the spectrum of the emitted pulse. © 1992 The American Physical Society.