Ring Laser - Large Rings

Large Rings

The perimeter dependence of the Signal/Noise ratio is

This equation defines large rings with L >> Lcrit ≈ 40 cm, where S/N becomes proportional to L2. Therefore the sensitivity of large rings increases quadratically with size, hence the quest for ever larger Ring Lasers for Research.

In the past it was thought that only small ring lasers avoid multimode excitation. However, if signal bandwidth is sacrificed, there is no known limit to ring laser size, either theoretically or experimentally.

One of the major advantages of large rings is a quartic reduction of lock-in and pulling in large rings.

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