MEASURING THE INTRACAVITY BIREFRINGENCE IN A GAS LASER WITH NEUTRAL COUPLING

摘要

We present a new method to determine the linear birefringence inside a laser cavity. We measure beat frequencies between orthogonally polarized modes in the intensity noise spectrum; the novel aspect is that we employ a gain medium with neutral coupling. Measurements are performed on the lambda = 2.026 mu m (J=1 --> J=1) HeXe laser transition. [References: 21]