The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 05, 1993
Filed:
Jan. 09, 1990
Alan C Nilsson, Mountain View, CA (US);
Harmonic Lightwaves, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a means of inducing unidirectional oscillation in monolithic and composite ring lasers in which the light path is planar. The intracavity optical diode that enforces unidirectional oscillation in the planar ring oscillator is achieved by a combination of the nonreciprocal Faraday effect, a linear birefringence effect in which the principal axes of the birefringence are not parallel and perpendicular to the plane of propagation of the ring light path, and one or more partial polarizer effects. The present invention enables experimental optimization of polarization transformations within a planar ring oscillator, even if the oscillator is monolithic, and also provides a means of tuning the frequency of the planar ring oscillator. Applications of the present invention involving monolithic resonators, composite resonators in which the ring light path is entirely contained within solid-state media, and composite resonators in which the ring light path involves propagation across one or more gaps between physically separated solid-state elements are also taught. The present invention provides an attractive alternative to the use of nonplanar ring light path geometry in both monolithic and composite resonator structures in which unidirectional oscillation is desired. The present invention makes it possible to vary both the reciprocal and non-reciprocal polarization transformations used to produce unidirectional oscillation. Such eigenpolarization-tunability is particularly advantageous in monolithic planar ring oscillators.