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US 4,791,633 AGranted
Polarization feedback laser stabilization
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsPeter Esherick, Adelbert Owyoung
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Abstract
A system for locking two Nd:YAG laser oscillators includes an optical path for feeding the output of one laser into the other with different polarizations. Elliptical polarization is incorporated into the optical path so that the change in polarization that occurs when the frequencies coincide may be detected to provide a feedback signal to control one laser relative to the other.
Claims12
A system for locking the frequencies of two lasers comprising:
- slave laser oscillator means for generating a slave laser output, said oscillator means including tuning means for precisely adjusting the frequency of said slave laser output in response to a control signal;
- master laser oscillator means for optical injection seeding said slave oscillator with a master laser signal;
- polarizer means for linearly polariziing a portion of the slave laser output to provide a probe signal at a first polarization;
- optical means for directing said probe signal to said master laser oscillator, said master laser oscillator further comprising means for providing a resonant amplification of said probe signal at a second polarization different from said first polarization when the frequency of said probe signal is equal to the frequency of said master laser signal;
- and
- detector means for detecting changes in the amplitude and polarization state of said probe signal resulting from interaction with said master laser oscillator;
- and
- control means responsive to an output of said detector means for providing the control signal to said tuning means.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.