We present further developments in the theory of dressed-state lasers, i.e., lasers that operate on inverted transitions between the dressed states of a coupled atom-field system. We take into account the quantum character of the driving field, and consider the effect of its depletion. We derive effective Hamiltonians appropriate for the analysis of both one- and two-photon dressed-state lasers, and then discuss the stability and statistics of such lasers. We show that pump-depletion effects tend to reduce the degree of squeezing found in dressed-state-laser output while simultaneously introducing small squeezing effects into the depleted pump field.

• Received 6 May 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.44.7746