Abstract
Diode-pumped miniature ring lasers1,2 are known as reliable sources of stable single-frequency radiation. Due to their low amplitude noise and high inherent frequency stability they are well suited for high resolution spectroscopy and interferometer-based metrology. An especially high resolution is required for the detection of gravitational waves using Michelson type interferometers. For these systems, a light source with high continuous wave output power in single-frequency operation, excellent frequency stability and extremely low amplitude noise as close to the quantum noise limit as possible is essential. Based on a miniature Nd:YAG ring laser,2 a light source has been developed that has the potential to meet these requirements.3 By injection locking a high power diode-pumped rod laser to a miniature ring laser, a singlefrequency output power of 18 W has been demonstrated. Since the locking range scales with the power ratio of master and slave laser, a high output power of the master laser is desirable for reliable performance. This contribution reports on the substantial progress in power scaling of miniature ring lasers.
© 1994 IEEE
PDF ArticleMore Like This
I. Freitag, P. Rottengatter, A. Tünnermann, and H. Welling
CTuP1 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO:S&I) 1994
Alejandro D. Farinas, Eric K. Gustafson, and Robert L. Byer
LT9 Advanced Solid State Lasers (ASSL) 1994
H. Zellmer, I. Freitag, D. Golla, S. Knoke, W. Schöne, A. Tünnermann, and H. Welling
CFH5 The European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe) 1994