Oscillation regimes of a solid-state ring laser with active beat note stabilization : from a chaotic device to a ring laser gyroscope

We report experimental and theoretical study of a rotating diode-pumped Nd-YAG ring laser with active beat note stabilization. Our experimental setup is described in the usual Maxwell-Bloch formalism. We analytically derive a stability condition and some frequency response characteristics for the solid-state ring laser gyroscope, illustrating the important role of mode coupling effects on the dynamics of such a device. Experimental data are presented and compared with the theory on the basis of realistic laser parameters, showing a very good agreement. Our results illustrate the duality between the very rich non linear dynamics of the diode-pumped solid-state ring laser (including chaotic behavior) and the possibility to obtain a very stable beat note, resulting in a potentially new kind of rotation sensor

Injection locking properties of a microchip laser

An injected microchip laser is theoretically studied, with the use of two models: in the first model, which is traditional, the field is represented by a single frequency component in the slowly-varying envelope approximation. In the second model, referred to as the Fabry-Perot model, two field components are considered which are respectively centered around the frequency of an eigenmode of the injected laser and the frequency of the injected field. Computation of locking ranges, bistability do mains are performed and the results compared. They show not only an improved precision of the second model but also a necessity to use it to describe some effects such as the bistable domains in the limits of the locking domains