Abstract
Mode locking phenomena in acoustics and in laser physics are discussed and are shown to share a feature of the forced oscillator: Oscillation takes place at the forcing frequency (or frequencies). The phenomena differ from simple forced oscillations in that they involve sustained oscillators (e.g., clocks, lasers) whose sustaining sources compete against the forcing signals in the choice of oscillation frequency. The locking phenomena are compared to second-order phase transitions in ferromagnetism and superconductivity where corresponding competition occurs between disordering thermal fluctuations and ordering correlations which reduce system energy.
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References
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Sargent, M. Mode locking in quantum optics. Appl. Phys. 1, 133–139 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889543
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889543