To investigate the discharge parameters of the prism laser gyro under high-frequency excitation, a finite element simulation model is developed using a prism gyro structure with an optical length of 0.28 m. The optimal high-frequency excitation parameters were determined by simulating the effects of high-frequency discharge, voltage, size of the electrode plates, and horizontal displacement of the electrode plates on the gas discharge: high-frequency voltage is 6.5 to 7.5 V, frequency is 130±5 MHz, flat electrode discharge structure is used, and upper and lower electrode plates are 16×5×2 mm3 and 12×5×2 mm3, respectively. It is preferable that the center positions of both upper and lower plates be as symmetrical as possible. Finally, the experimental results validate the accuracy of the finite element analysis.
To stabilize the frequency difference of the two-cavity dual-frequency Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm, a scheme of the phase modulation of the orthogonally and linearly polarized dual-frequency laser using single electro-optic phase modulator has been proposed, and a frequency-difference stabilizing system for a two-cavity dual-frequency Nd:YAG laser based on the single-modulator quadrature-demodulated Pound–Drever–Hall (SM-QD-PDH) method has been designed and established. The characteristics of phase modulation, frequency discrimination, frequency stabilization, and frequency-difference stabilization of the orthogonally and linearly polarized dual-frequency laser with a frequency difference of ∼24 GHz at 1064 nm have been investigated experimentally. The experimental results have indicated that during a period of 1 h, the laser frequency stabilities of the linear and right-angle cavities are estimated by Allan variance to be better than 1.6 × 10 − 11 and 2.0 × 10 − 11, respectively, corresponding to a frequency-difference stability of better than 2.9 × 10 − 7. The designed SM-QD-PDH frequency-difference stabilizing system is not only simple but also has better performances than that of the double-modulator QD-PDH frequency-difference stabilizing system. Such a frequency-difference-stabilized two-cavity dual-frequency Nd:YAG laser can be used as an ideal light source for the synthetic-wave absolute-distance interferometric system.
KEYWORDS: Nd:YAG lasers, Laser stabilization, Ferroelectric materials, Signal detection, Signal processing, Digital signal processing, Crystals, Optical engineering, Laser applications, Demodulation
To stabilize the frequency-difference of the two-cavity dual-frequency Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm, a quadrature-demodulated Pound–Drever–Hall (QD-PDH) frequency-difference stabilizing system has been designed, which is composed of two sets of QD-PDH frequency stabilizing subsystems sharing the same Fabry–Perot cavity as the frequency reference. Both phase modulators are driven by the signals with the same frequency of 10 MHz generated by a single direct digital synthesizer (DDS), and the DDS also outputs the other two orthogonal signals as the demodulation reference signals of both frequency stabilizing subsystems. A QD-PDH frequency-difference stabilizing system for a two-cavity dual-frequency Nd:YAG laser with a frequency-difference of ∼24 GHz at 1064 nm has been established and investigated experimentally. The experimental results have indicated that during a period of 1 h, the laser frequency stabilities of the linear and right-angle cavities are estimated by Allan variance to be better than 2.3 × 10 − 11 and 2.7 × 10 − 11, respectively, corresponding to frequency-difference stability of better than 4.2 × 10 − 7. Such a frequency-difference-stabilized two-cavity dual-frequency Nd:YAG laser can be used as an ideal light source for the synthetic-wave absolute-distance interferometric system.
The refractive indexes of prisms are affected by temperature, hence the optical characteristics of triangular prisms ring cavity is disturbed enough to affect the stability of the laser gyro. Considering the temperature perturbation, the transmission matrices of the reflected and refracted beams on the prism surfaces have been modified. The modified results are the old 2×2 beam transfer matrices are corrected to new 3×3 matrices and the temperature perturbations are added. According to the self-consistent theory of the laser ring cavity, a physical model of the ring cavity light transmission with the temperature disturbance has been established. The theoretical analysis shows that when the temperature varies from -40℃ to 70℃, the changes of the optical cavity-length, frequency offset, and scale factor are 49μm, 0.011MHz and 1.96×10-10, respectively. An experimental system of the prism laser gyroscope has been established whose temperature can be changed, and the experimental results agree with the theoretical values.
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