DYNAMICAL POLARIZATION STATES ABOVE THE INSTABILITY THRESHOLD FOR CIRCULARLY-POLARIZED LASER-EMISSION

We show that in a laser with a transversally isotropic resonator opera ting on a J = 1 --> J = 0 transition the instability of Circularly Pol arized states leads to Linearly Polarized states with a rotating direc tion of polarization. This transition occurs through intermediate stat es which are Elliptically Polarized with rotating azimuth. For the ran ge of pump values for which the intermediate Rotating Elliptically Pol arized states occur, the total output intensity is constant, and all t he energy is pumped into the coherence between the m(z) = 1 and m(z) = -1 state.