This project was initially funded by the German Ministry of Research and Technology (BMBF) and the company Carl Zeiss. While the original project has long been completed, we continue to develop monolithic ring lasers in the framework of other projects. Our main goals are increased output power and the operation at novel wavelengths.
Monolithic ring lasers are often referred to by the acronyms "MISER" (monolithic isolated, end-pumped ring laser) or "NPRO" (non-planar ring oscillator). These lasers have the highest frequency stability of all solid state lasers. For this reason, there are numerous applications that rely on this class of lasers, e. g. detection of gravitational waves, optical inter-satellite communication, optical frequency standards for spectroscopy (incl. LIDAR), fiber optical sensors, and many more.
Most currently available monolithic ring lasers are based on a patent by Byer and Kane which was filed in 1984. Output powers of up to 1 Watt are available from this concept. However, many applications would benefit from higher powers, e. g. in the range of 10 W. We have developed a novel concept for monolithic ring lasers that allows power scaling to several Watts. The concept also allows laser operation at quasi-three-level transitions.
| Publications concerning this research: U. Wittrock, Nicht-planarer Ringlaser, German Patent Application DE 19722943A1 (1997). H. Zimer, J. Hüve, U. Wittrock, "Konzept für einen neuartigen monolithischen Ringlaser hoher Leistung," 10. Norddeutscher Lasertag, Hamburg, Germany, poster (1999). H. Zimer and U. Wittrock, "1.6 W of single-mode output power from a novel power-scaling scheme for monolithic nonplanar ring lasers," Opt. Lett. 29, 1635-1637 (2004). H. Zimer and U. Wittrock, "Novel high-power Nd:YAG-MISER," Conference on Lasers and Electro?Optics (CLEO), Long Beach, CA, 2002, OSA Technical Digest TOPS vol. 73, paper CWG5, pp. 391 - 392 (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C., 2002). H. Zimer, U. Wittrock, "1.6 W Single-mode oscillation from a novel monolithic ring-laser," European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO Europe), Munich, Europhysics Conference Abstracts vol. 27E, paper CA5-3-TUE (European Physical Society, Mulhouse, France, 2003). H. Zimer and U. Wittrock, "Suppression of spatial hole burning in certain angular reflection geometries", 15. Norddeutscher Lasertag, Hamburg, Germany, poster (2004). (Please see our list of publications for up-to-date information on all our publications.) |