ASYMMETRY OF OPERATION AND ENERGY TRAPPING IN A SUPERRADIANT LASER

On working beyond the slowly varying envelope approximation, the insta bility of superfluorescent decay is investigated for the case in which the sample size is greater than or comparable to the resonant wavelen gth. The instability is associated with coupling between counterpropag ating waves and can inhibit emission in the direction of the pump puls e. In particular, it is shown that tiny changes of the sample length c an cause the forward emission to be switched off, suggesting that the optical analog of a directing antenna may be experimentally accessible .