Lamb-dip-like behavior in each spectral component of a spontaneously pulsing, single-mode, standing-wave gas laser

The optical spectra corresponding to complex intensity pulsation patterns near line-center tuning of single-mode, standing-wave gas lasers contain some simple indicators of the origins of their complexity. Heterodyne measurements show that on detuning of the laser the power density in each component of the optical spectrum undergoes a Lamb-dip-like reduction as it passes through resonance with the zero-velocity atoms. These observations help to explain the sensitive dependence of the dynamics of standing-wave gas lasers on detuning within the Lamp dip and distortions of the Lamb-dip shapes when the lasers are unstable.