Traveling-wave gas laser

Abstract

The ratio of the clockwise to counterclockwise intensities in a multimode HeNe ring laser was measured as the strength of unidirectional coupling between the two intensities was varied. These results are compared to calculations based on a gain saturation with field coupling model which indicates that intensity ratios >10² are possible. With the addition of an etalon in the laser cavity, stable single‐mode operation is observed.