Laser-feedbackccontrol design for passive-ring-laser gyros in a very-high-finesse cavity. Master's thesis

Technical Report · Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5881769

Lorenz, M A

The Frank J. Seiler Research Laboratory is currently developing a passive resonant ring laser gyroscope (PRRLG) enclosing 58 sq m for proposed use in testing high precision rate sensors and for possibly validating the theory of general relativity. The sensitivities required for such experiments are in the 10/sup -7/ to 10/sup -10/ Earth Rate Unit (ERU) range. This high sensitivity necessitates the use of a large, high finesse cavity. In dealing with high finesse cavities new considerations arise. For example, the cavity linewidth is narrower than linewidths of commercially available stabilized He-Ne lasers. The stability of the laser then becomes the limiting factor in the performance of the PRRLG because of the increased signal-to-noise ratio that arises in this situation. In addition, high-finesse cavities exhibit photon lifetimes on the order of 10 /sup -3/ to 10/sup -6/ seconds, which limits the bandwidth of practical controllers. In this research, a PRRLG was constructed in which a He-Ne laser was frequency locked to 25,000 finesse, 169 sq. cm. resonant cavity, as opposed to the more-traditional technique of locking the resonant condition of the cavity to the laser frequency.

• Research Organization: Air Force Inst. of Tech., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH (USA). School of Engineering
• OSTI ID: 5881769
• Report Number(s): AD-A-164309/7/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
CAVITY RESONATORS
GYROSCOPES
RING LASERS
CONTROL
FEEDBACK
CAVITIES
PHOTONS
RELATIVITY THEORY
RESONANCE
STABILITY
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUIPMENT
FIELD THEORIES
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
LASERS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
RESONATORS
420300* - Engineering- Lasers- (-1989)
420800 - Engineering- Electronic Circuits & Devices- (-1989)