4: Laser Dynamics (single-mode)
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Before we start to look into the dynamics of a multi-mode laser, we should recall the technically important regimes of operation of a ”single-mode” laser. The term ”single-mode” is set in apostrophes, since it doesn’t have to be really single-mode. There can be several modes running, for example due to spatial holeburning, but in an incoherent fashion, so that only the average power of the beam matters. For a more detailed account on single-mode laser dynamics and Q-Switching the following references are recommended [1][3][16][4][5].