Fluctuations of the output energy of a ruby laser

Repeated measurements of the output energy were carried out on five prototype ruby lasers operated under identical conditions. Three of these lasers had a passive Q switch and two of them were switched by an optomechanical device. The frequency of the appearance of specific values of the output energy was described by the normal distribution for random quantities. The dispersion of the output energy of the lasers with the passive switch was two to three times greater than the corresponding dispersion for the lasers with the optomechanical switch.