The Laser Linewidth – Fairy Tales and Physical Evidence

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Abstract
The laser linewidth manifests the spectral coherence of a lasing resonator mode. It is of fundamental importance, theoretically as much as practically. For more than half a century we have been told that the laser linewidth is a result of quantum fluctuations due to spontaneous emission, which induce amplitude and phase fluctuations, whereas stimulated emission occurs in phase with the incident field. Unfortunately, in such a scenario each emission process would violate the law of energy conservation. We show that a (spontaneous or stimulated) emission process occurs 90 degrees in lead of the incident field, converts one atomic excitation into one photon in the lasing mode and, therefore, conserves the energy, whereas the mentioned fluctuations are the result of vacuum energy and occur at an orders-of-magnitude faster time scale than an emission process.