Transverse Zeeman laser
First Claim
1. A laser, comprising:
- a high-reflection mirror and a coupling mirror defining a resonator;
a gain medium present in said resonator;
excitation means to excite said gain medium and produce an output beam from the laser;
photoelastic means to produce a photoelastic effect introducing an artificial anisotropy into said resonator; and
magnetic means to apply a magnetic field to said resonator and produce a Zeeman effect;
whereinsaid photoelastic means exhibits two privileged directions affecting production of said photoelastic effect; and
said magnetic means applies said magnetic field transversely along one of said privileged directions and creates two orthogonal linearly polarized frequency components in said output beam with said Zeeman effect.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is a laser (12) having a resonator (28) between an output coupling mirror (20) and a high-reflection mirror (26). A photoelastic plate (38) is incorporated in a photoelastic cell (24), or a photoelastic mirror (36) used in place of the high-reflection mirror (26). The photoelastic plate (38) is placed in the resonator (28) and introduces an artificial anisotropy to the laser (12). The photoelastic plate (38) has privileged directions (34), which are aligned with the axes of the artificial anisotropy. A magnetic field (32) is applied transversely to the resonator (28), in alignment with one of the privileged directions (34), to produce two orthogonal linearly polarized frequencies in an output beam (30) with the Zeeman effect.
7 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A laser, comprising:
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a high-reflection mirror and a coupling mirror defining a resonator; a gain medium present in said resonator; excitation means to excite said gain medium and produce an output beam from the laser; photoelastic means to produce a photoelastic effect introducing an artificial anisotropy into said resonator; and magnetic means to apply a magnetic field to said resonator and produce a Zeeman effect;
whereinsaid photoelastic means exhibits two privileged directions affecting production of said photoelastic effect; and said magnetic means applies said magnetic field transversely along one of said privileged directions and creates two orthogonal linearly polarized frequency components in said output beam with said Zeeman effect. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for producing a beam of light having two orthogonal linearly polarized frequency components, comprising:
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exciting a gain medium in a laser resonator to produce an output beam; providing a photoelastic effect in said laser resonator to create an artificial anisotropy, wherein said artificial anisotropy has a first principal axis; and applying a magnetic field transversely to said resonator and aligned with said first principal axis. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification