Abstract: A ring laser configuration operative to reduce divergence in the laser beam circulating within the ring and provided as an output. The ring laser configuration includes an odd number of reflectors in the ring path with one or more polarizer crystals for providing input and output coupling. The use of an odd number of reflectors creates an inversion in each pass of the radiation through a flowing active medium within the ring path to provide averaging of the divergence effects of the medium in the flow direction.

Abstract: A laser gyroscope system which detects frequency shifts in which waves are propagated along a path in opposite directions at different frequencies to minimize interaction between the waves with frequency separation of the waves maintained by both reciprocal and nonreciprocal polarization dispersion in which frequencies of the two waves propagating in one direction lie between the two frequencies of waves propagating in the opposite direction. Rotation of the system produces shifts of the frequencies so that variation in the difference between the separation between the two upper frequencies, which propagate in opposite directions, and the separation between the two lower frequencies, which propagate in opposite directions, is used to measure rotation rate.

Abstract: A laser discharge tube assembly is disclosed, such assembly including a pair of blocks, one having an optically flat surface and the other having at least a pair of grooves formed in an optically smooth surface thereof, the surfaces of the pair of blocks being fixed in mutual contact when assembled to form a laser capillary. With such arrangement various folded capillaries, such as V-shaped or W-shaped capillaries, may be easily and accurately fabricated. Laser discharge tubes, each having a folded capillary, are disclosed in a ring laser gyroscope application to increase the length of the capillary in a given area, thereby maximizing the gain of the laser resonator used in such application.

Abstract: A laser gyroscope is disclosed wherein two pairs of waves propagating in opposite directions in a laser resonator are amplified by the laser medium of such resonator. The frequencies of such waves, which are all different, are maintained symmetrically about the center maximum gain frequency curve associated with the laser medium by operation of a pathlength stabilizer. Means are provided for combining a portion of each one of the waves in at least one of the pair of waves into a single composite beam and for controlling, in accordance with the relative levels of the energy in the components of such single composite beam, the pathlength of the laser resonator. With such an arrangement only one photodetector is required for pathlength stabilization.

Abstract: A laser gyroscope is disclosed wherein a polarization dispersive structure, disposed in the path of the laser beam, includes an anisotropic crystal as a half-wave retarder. The crystallographic axes of such crystal are oriented with respect to the plane of the path to produce different delays to oppositely polarized waves passing through the crystal structure.