A Laser Feedback Control Design for Passive Ring Laser Gyros in a Very High Finesse Cavity.
Abstract
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 to the minus 7th power to 10 to the minus 10th power 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 to the minus 3rd power to 10 to the minus 6th power 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. (Theses)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA164309
Entities
People
- Mark A. Lorenz
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology