Abstract:
Transverse mode switching is accomplished in a laser oscillating in at least one transverse mode by the injection therein of a low level seeding signal of the desired output mode. If the laser is designed to enhance transverse mode competition (i.e., the cavity geometry approaches either a concentric or plane parallel configuration), then a seeding signal of the correct frequency will cause the laser to switch (i.e., spatially lock) to oscillation entirely in the injected mode. In addition, if the cavity resonator is frequency degenerate at the frequency of a complex (i.e., many transverse modes) input signal, and if the resonator is designed to provide approximately equal gain for all of these transverse modes, then the laser will lock onto the transverse modes of the input signal and image-amplify the signal.
Abstract:
A highly mode-selective ring laser is made with primary and auxiliary ring resonators that are coupled through beam splitters that direct out of the laser a large portion of radiation in modes that are not resonant in both of the resonators. Typically, the beam splitters will operate on modes propagating in opposite senses. A typical configuration includes primary and auxiliary ring resonators both in the form of quadrilaterals and includes beam splitters with reflectivities chosen to provide a loss for the nonselected modes that is higher than the gain of the laser.
Abstract:
A laser that oscillates in multiple transverse and longitudinal modes is pulsed by a mutual adaptation of an absorption cell having a substantially matching absorption line and the other components of the laser to phase-lock simultaneously the traverse and longitudinal modes of the laser by saturable absorption. Simultaneous locking is accomplished provided that the laser resonator is designed such that the longitudinal mode separation frequency is an integral multiple of the transverse mode separation frequency.
Abstract:
The disclosed laser has, within its resonator, an active medium and an optical limiter adapted to limit at very low levels in order to provide a very narrow effective linewidth at the peak of the atomic gain-versus-frequency curve. The optical resonator is made sufficiently long, for example, by including therein a subsidiary folded resonator, to have a resonance within the narrow effective linewidth. The limiter provides the laser with a self-stabilizing characteristic that minimizes the effects of random fluctuations in the cavity loss or in the gain of the active medium.