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Ring Lasers

Definition: lasers with a ring resonator

More general term: lasers

Opposite term: lasers with linear resonator

German: Ringlaser

Categories: optical resonators, laser devices and laser physics

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Cite the article using its DOI: https://doi.org/10.61835/o7f

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unidirectional ring laser
Figure 1: A ring laser resonator, where unidirectional operation is enforced with an optical isolator.

A ring laser is a laser with a ring resonator as its laser resonator. In contrast to a standing-wave (or linear) laser resonator, such a ring resonator does not have any end mirrors, hit with normal incidence, and it allows for two different propagation directions of the intracavity light.

Unidirectional Laser Operation

In many cases, unidirectional operation (where light propagates only in one of the two possible directions) is enforced by introducing an element into the resonator which leads to different losses for the propagation directions (Figure 1); this can be, e.g., a Faraday rotator combined with a polarizing element (e.g. a Brewster surface of the laser crystal).

VERDI frequency-doubled ring laser
Figure 2: Photograph of the VERDI green laser from Coherent. A unidirectional ring laser resonator is used, enabling low-noise single-frequency operation. The image was kindly provided by Coherent.

Note that one normally requires only a tiny difference in round-trip propagation losses to obtain stable unidirectional operation. This is because in continuous-wave operation lasing leads to gain saturation such that the round-trip gain becomes zero; due to the loss difference, light propagating in the opposite direction then has a slightly negative round-trip gain, which means that it can never acquire any substantial optical power.

If unidirectional operation is achieved, there is no standing-wave interference pattern in the laser gain medium (except near reflection points), and consequently no spatial hole burning. Therefore, single-frequency operation is easily achieved. Particularly for solid-state bulk lasers, unidirectional ring laser designs can be considered as a standard approach to obtain stable single-frequency emission.

Typical Types of Ring Lasers

Nonplanar Ring Oscillators

NPRO (or MISER) laser setup
Figure 3: Setup of a monolithic ring laser (NPRO or MISER).

See the article on nonplanar ring oscillators for more details.

A popular kind of solid-state ring laser is the nonplanar ring oscillator, also called NPRO or MISER. This is a monolithic laser design (Figure 3), where the whole laser resonator consists only of a coated laser crystal. While the fabrication of such crystals is somewhat more complicated than for ordinary laser crystals, alignment is fairly easy, and such lasers are very stable and robust.

Fiber Ring Lasers

There are also fiber lasers with ring resonator configurations. Fiber ring lasers are more often mode-locked lasers than single-frequency lasers. A frequently used configuration is that of the figure-eight laser [4], containing a nonlinear loop mirror as effective saturable absorber. The ring geometry then does not serve to avoid spatial hole burning, but rather follows from the principle of the artificial saturable absorber (a nonlinear loop mirror) as required for pulse shaping.

There are other fiber ring lasers, used e.g. in optical gyroscopes, where bidirectional operation is required. Outside the laser resonator, a beat note of the beams corresponding to the different propagation directions can be detected, and the beat frequency reveals the angular frequency of rotation of the laser (Sagnac effect). Special care is often required in order to avoid coherent locking of the counterpropagating waves. In particular, it is necessary to avoid even very weak parasitic reflections (e.g. on imperfect laser mirrors) which can couple the counterpropagating modes.

Bibliography

[1]T. J. Kane and R. L. Byer, “Monolithic, unidirectional single-mode Nd:YAG ring laser”, Opt. Lett. 10 (2), 65 (1985); https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.10.000065
[2]W. W. Chow et al., “The ring laser gyro”, Rev. Mod. Phys. 57, 61 (1985); https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.57.61
[3]S. De Silvestri et al., “Rod thermal lensing effects in solid-state laser ring resonators”, Opt. Commun. 65 (5), 373 (1988); https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-4018(88)90106-X
[4]I. N. Duling III, “All-fiber ring soliton laser mode locked with a nonlinear mirror”, Opt. Lett. 16 (8), 539 (1991); https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.16.000539
[5]M. K. Reed and W. K. Bischel, “Acousto-optic modulators as unidirectional devices in ring lasers”, Opt. Lett. 17 (9), 691 (1992); https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.17.000691
[6]K. Tamura et al., “77-fs pulse generation from a stretched-pulse mode-locked all-fiber ring laser”, Opt. Lett. 18 (13), 1080 (1993); https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.18.001080
[7]L. E. Nelson et al., “Ultrashort-pulse fiber ring lasers”, Appl. Phys. B 65, 277 (1997); https://doi.org/10.1007/s003400050273
[8]K. I. Martin et al., “Stable, high-power, single-frequency generation at 532 nm from a diode-bar-pumped Nd:YAG ring laser with an intracavity LBO frequency doubler”, Appl. Opt. 36 (18), 4149 (1997); https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.36.004149
[9]G. E. Stedman, “Ring-laser tests of fundamental physics and geophysics”, Rep. Prog. Phys. 60, 615 (1997); https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/60/6/001
[10]D. Panasenko et al., “Er–Yb femtosecond ring fiber oscillator with 1.1-W average power and GHz repetition rate”, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 18 (7), 853 (2006); https://doi.org/10.1109/LPT.2006.871821
[11]K. Kieu and M. Mansuripur, “All-fiber bidirectional passively mode-locked ring laser”, Opt. Lett. 33 (1), 64 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.33.000064
[12]H. Liu et al., “High-power 100 W Kerr-lens mode-locked ring-cavity femtosecond Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator”, Opt. Lett. 49 (5), 1157 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.511281
[13]R. Paschotta, case study on a ring resonator

(Suggest additional literature!)

See also: laser resonators, spatial hole burning, single-frequency lasers, single-frequency operation, nonplanar ring oscillators, fiber lasers

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