Claims
- 1. A gas laser comprising:
- a main resonant cavity including a gain cell positioned along an optical axis, a source of excitation coupled to said cell, a pair of windows at opposite ends of said gain cell providing an output of vertically polarized optical energy;
- a coupled cavity axially aligned with said main cavity and including a polarization coupler angularly disposed at its Brewster angle to said axis for coupling energy out of said laser having a polarization normal to that from said gain cell, an electro-optic modulator spaced from said coupler in said coupled cavity along said axis for controlling the polarization of energy passing therethrough, a source of control voltage coupled to said modulator; and
- a plurality of mirrors including first and second highly reflective end mirrors positioned at the respective opposite ends of said main and coupled cavities and a third low reflectivity mirror positioned between said cavities, the reflection of energy between said coupled cavity end mirror and third mirror being of a phase to reinforce output of said gain cell in order to sustain continuous wave operation.
- 2. The gas laser of claim 1 wherein said control voltage coupled to said modulator selectively controls the polarization of optical energy passing through said modulator and returned to and reflected out by said polarization coupler.
- 3. The laser of claim 1 wherein the round trip length of said coupled cavity is selected as a half integral number of wavelengths of the laser operating frequency.
Government Interests
The Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract DAAB07-76-C-0920, awarded by the Department of the Army.
US Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
3918007 |
Waksberg |
Nov 1975 |
|