Simulating Laser Dynamics with Cellular Automata

The long-established approach to study laser dynamics uses a set of differential equations known as the laser rate equations. In this work we present an overview of an alternative model based on a cellular automaton (CA). We also present a panorama of different variants of the model: the original one, designed to simulate general laser dynamics; an additional one, that was proposed to simulate pulsed pumped lasers; and finally a new model to simulate lasers that exhibit antiphase dynamics, which is proposed here. Despite its simplicity, the CA model reproduces qualitatively the phenomenology encountered in many real laser systems: (i) the existence of a threshold value of the pumping rate \(R_t\); (ii) the exact dependence of \(R_t\) on the life times of the photons and the inversion population; (iii) the two main laser regimes: a steady state and an oscillatory one.