File:Ring laser interferometry shift.png

English: Schematic representation of the frequency shift of the counterpropagating waves in a ring laser interferometer. The ring laser interferometer is rotating counterclockwise. Laserlight propagates in both directions in the ring-shaped laser cavity. The clockwise propagating laserlight is depicted as traveling a shorter distance than the total length of the laser cavity. The counterclockwise propagating laserlight is depicted as traveling a longer distance than the total length of the laser cavity. The lasing process that generates the laserlight is a process of resonance. In the absence of rotation the laserlight has the same frequency in both directions. When the ring laser setup is rotating there is a splitting of the frequencies. It turns out that the counterpropagating light must always go through the same amount of cycles as the co-propagating light. The wavelength, hence the frequency, shifts in such a way that for both directions of propagation the number of cycles is the same. For clarity, in the diagram the counterpropagating and co-propagating laserlight have been separated. In an actual ring laser interferometer this is not the case of course

(Original text : Self-made
The overall design is copied from an illustration (section 1.1, figure 1) in the 70-page review Ring laser tests of fundamental physics and geophysics, (PDF-file 1.5 MB; original archived source from physics.berkeley.edu))

2009-02-8 01:15 (UTC)

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