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

Technical Report · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 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
420300* -- Engineering-- Lasers-- (-1989)
420800 -- Engineering-- Electronic Circuits & Devices-- (-1989)
CAVITIES
CAVITY RESONATORS
CONTROL
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUIPMENT
FEEDBACK
FIELD THEORIES
GENERAL RELATIVITY THEORY
GYROSCOPES
LASERS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
PHOTONS
RELATIVITY THEORY
RESONANCE
RESONATORS
RING LASERS
STABILITY