Affiliation:
1. Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies
2. Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Abstract
We report on the operation of a 10 m perimeter, helium–neon based ring laser gyroscope on the
3
s
2
→
2
p
6
(611.8 nm) and
3
s
2
→
2
p
10
(543.4 nm) transitions of neon. Cavity
Q
factors of
1.5
×
10
12
and
3.8
×
10
11
are obtained for 611.8 and 543.4 nm operation, inferred from measured ring-down times of 485 and 110 μs, respectively. For Sagnac frequencies, due to Earth rotation, of 205.14 and 230.96 Hz, minimum resolvable rotation rates of 80 and 226 prad/s are achieved for integration times of around 100 s. While environment limited performance is achieved for operation at 611.8 nm, it is found that a restrictive gas pressure regime must be utilized for the 543.4 nm lasing wavelength. As a consequence, the output photon count is low, which limits its intrinsic sensitivity for rotation rate measurements.
Subject
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics,Engineering (miscellaneous),Electrical and Electronic Engineering