Abstract:
An embodiment of the invention enhances the rotation sensitivity and decreases the dead band width of a standard HeNe ring laser gyroscope (RLG), with the highest enhancement at low rotation rates. The addition of a gas with nuclear spin to the traditional HeNe gain medium is used to create the intracavity gain medium with an anomalous dispersive quality and thus enhanced rotation sensitivity.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The ring laser gyroscope is a navigation instrument which utilizes the Sagnac effect to detect rotations. In a ring laser gyro, resonant properties of a closed cavity convert the Sagnac-induces phase difference between the clock-wise (CW) and counter clock-wise (CCW) propagating beams into a frequency difference, which is more easily measured than the absolute phase shift. This is called resonant frequency splitting. Ring laser gyroscopes may be classified as passive or active, depending upon whether the gain medium is external or internal to the cavity. In the active ring laser gyroscope the cavity defined by the closed optical path becomes an oscillator. Output beams from the two directions interfere to give a beat frequency, which is proportional to the frequency difference between the CCW and CW beams and is a proportional to of the rotation rate. The constant of proportionality between the resonant frequency splitting and the rotation rate is the scale factor, which depends on the area enclosed by the ring laser. The oscillator approach has the advantage that the frequency filtering properties of the cavity resonator are narrowed by many orders of magnitude below the passive cavity to give the potential for simple configurations for very precise rotation sensing. To date, the major ring laser gyroscope rotation sensor effort has been put into the active ring laser. Presently most commercially available optical rotation sensors are active ring laser gyroscopes. However, there are undesirable effects operating in any such device such as as null shift, lock-in, and mode pulling 
         [0002]    When the rotation rate of the ring laser gyroscope is below a certain absolute threshold, the frequency difference between the CW and CCW beams can no longer be differentiated. This phenomenon is called frequency lock-in, or mode locking. This affects the ring laser gyroscope because at low rotation rates the CW and CCW beams&#39; frequencies can not be differentiated and the ring laser gyroscope produces a false indication that the device is not rotating. If the rotation rate of a ring laser gyroscope starts at a value above that where lock-in occurs and is then decreased, the frequency difference between the beams disappears at a certain rotation rate. This rotation rate is called the lock-in threshold. The range of rotation rates over which lock-in occurs is generally called the dead band of the ring laser gyroscope. Lock-in arises from coupling of light between the clockwise and counter clockwise beams. The coupling results primarily from backscatter off the mirrors that recirculate the beams around the closed path. Backscatter causes the beam in each direction to include a small component having the frequency of the counter propagating beam in the other direction. The lock-in effect in a ring laser gyroscope is similar to the coupling that has long been observed and understood in conventional electronic oscillators. Even with optimum design and high reflectivity mirrors the lock-in phenomenon is invariably present. 
         [0003]    Any inability to accurately measure low rotation rates reduces the effectiveness of a ring laser gyroscope in navigational systems. Therefore it is well known that a ring laser gyroscope requires means for circumventing mode locking. 
         [0004]    The actual active gain section contains the lasing medium that is the source of the laser radiation. Any such medium is dispersive, that is, its refractive index varies with frequency. Dispersion is classified as normal in frequency regions where the refractive index increases slowly and smoothly with increasing frequency, thus having a positive slope. Typically in a ring laser gyro the refractive index is considered constant. However, in regions near an atomic resonance (gain maximum) the index undergoes a rapid change and there is dispersion, typically accompanied by absorption. When the slope of the dispersion is negative it is called anomalous dispersion. 
         [0005]    The source of error in laser gyroscopes is principally because the affect on gyroscope scale factor. In a ring laser employing a gaseous gain section, anomalous dispersion in the neighborhood of resonances (where the laser operates) causes oscillating modes to be displaced in frequency from their ideal, empty cavity values. The amount of displacement varies with gain, and this mode pulling gives rise to a change in the gyroscope scale factor, that is, in the magnitude of the beat frequency due to rotation. This is a source of error. 
         [0006]    Although lock-in cannot be completely eliminated, the problem can be made tractable through deliberate imposition of a known null shift bias. This bias provides a beat frequency in the absence of rotation that is known and that can be subtracted from the rotation readout to obtain the true rotation rate. Null shift biases are generated by several means. Included are discharge gas flow, Langmuir flow, Faraday effect, and mechanical motion of the gyro (dithering). 
         [0007]    Dithering involves mechanically oscillating the ring laser gyroscope about its sensor axis so that the device is constantly sweeping through the deadband and is never locked therein. This mechanical oscillation of the ring laser gyroscope is produced by a dither motor attached to the ring laser gyroscope. Dither suspension and drive mechanisms are mechanically complex, and fail to completely eliminate the effects of residual backscatter coupling. Some guidance applications cannot tolerate the amount of mechanical vibration required to mechanically dither the ring laser gyroscope frame. 
         [0008]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , as is known in the art a ring laser gyroscope  10  is typically formed of a block  12  provided with interior passages  14  that communicates with openings at each of its corners. Mirrors  16 ,  18 , and  20  are provided at the corners with one of the mirrors  16 ,  18 , and  20  being used as a read-out device. The interior passages  14  and the mirrors  16 ,  18 , and  20  define a plasma chamber in the form of a closed laser resonant path. 
         [0009]    A cathode  22  and anodes  24  and  26  engage corresponding surfaces of the block  12  at openings there through. Indium is usually used to form seals between the block  12  and the electrodes comprising the cathode  22  and the anodes  24  and  26 . These seals confine the gas that is energized to provide the laser plasma within the plasma chamber. The energized gas is often referred to as the discharge gas. The Indium seals are compressible so that a tight seal is formed. Also, a dither motor  28  to be discussed below is provided between the block  12  and a support structure. 
         [0010]    A source  30  supplies an electric potential across the cathode  22  and the anodes  24  and  26 . Typically, the source  30  biases the anodes  24  and  26  at or slightly negative with respect to the potential of the block  12 , particularly the potential in the area of the block  12  at the dither motor  28 . This potential is a reference potential such as ground. The source  30  biases the cathode  22  at a potential that is more negative than the potential of the anodes  24  and  26 . 
         [0011]    Accordingly, the invention operates as follows. The electric potential across the cathode  22  and the anode  24  energizes the gas in the interior gain bore passages  14  so as to form a laser plasma that supports a laser which traverses the optical closed loop provided by the interior passages  14  in one direction such as a clockwise direction. Similarly, the electric potential across the cathode  22  and the anode  26  energizes the gas in the interior gain bore passages  14  so as to form a laser plasma that supports a laser which traverses the optical closed loop provided by the interior passages  14  in the opposite direction such as a counterclockwise direction. 
         [0012]    One of the problems associated with the ring laser gyroscope  10  is lock-in which occurs at low rotation rates. Backscatter from the mirrors  16 ,  18 , and  20  within the optical path formed by the interior passages  14  couples energy from one of the lasing directions into the counter-propagating laser. While this coupling is always present, at low rotation rates the oscillating frequencies of the two counter-propagating lasers lock together in a single frequency. Thus, a ring laser gyroscope can be insensitive to rotations having low rates. Accordingly, in this embodiment shown, and as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,058,111, the dither motor  28  is provided in order to dither the ring laser gyroscope  10  because dithering mitigates lock-in. 
         [0013]    Recently, it has been theoretically shown that an anomalous dispersion in a resonator based Sagnac gyroscope can enhance the rotation sensitivity by orders of magnitude. In a theoretical discussion and a subsequent experimental system Shahriar et al. (2007) described how the enhancement occurs if the dispersion is anomalous, characteristic of superluminal light propagation. Under their idealized model a group index varied linearly over all frequencies, and the enhancement factor is given by the inverse of the group index, was maximal when the group index was null, corresponding to the so-called critically anomalous dispersion condition (i.e. where the group velocity become infinite). For a realistic medium, the anomalous dispersion does have a limited bandwidth, but even taking this into account, Shahriar et al suggested that the intracavity medium could be manipulated such that a very large enhancement could be achieved, for example, as high as 10 6 . 
         [0014]    Accordingly the experimental system of Shahriar et al. described potential ultrahigh enhancement in a gyro system using Rubidium ( 85 Rb) to produce bi-frequency gain splitting by optically pumping an intercavity vapor to produce a population inversion between the F=2 and 3 hyperfine states. Bi-frequency gain is a method for producing anomalous dispersion absent absorption of the optical beams. In general, they described how a propagation medium, in their experimental system  85 Rb, was used to enhance the sensitivity of measuring absolute rotations. 
         [0015]    In the experiments above, two pump beams of slightly different frequencies were used to generate closely spaced gain peaks, called a gain doublet, in order to produce anomalous dispersion. While this is not the only means for creating anomalous dispersion, this scheme is preferable to other means for generating anomalous dispersion because there is little or no absorption of the transient light. One beam is frequency-locked to the 5S1/2, F=2 to 5P3/2, F′=3 transition in  85 Rb and orthogonally polarized with respect to the probe beam. The two pump beams and the probe are combined using two beam splitters, one polarizing, and the other non-polarizing at the input end, and made to propagate collinearly in Rb vapor cell that contains a mixture of the 85 and 87 isotopes. 
         [0016]    A practical implementation of a RLG is to use a HeNe gas mixture as the lasing medium. Historically a mixture of Ne-20 and Ne-22 is used to eliminate mode competition between the CCW and CW beams, as is demonstrated, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,058,111. Importantly, although Shahriar et al. demonstrated that  85 Rb works well in proof-of-concept experiment, these results are not translatable for use in a real gyro. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0017]    An embodiment of the invention enhances the rotation sensitivity by increasing the scale factor, lowers the lock-in threshold, and decreases the dead band width of a standard HeNe ring laser gyroscope (RLG), with the highest enhancement at low rotation angles. A novel mixture of Neon isotopes is used to create the intracavity gain medium with gain splitting potentiality. The addition of Ne-21 creates the anomalous dispersive quality and thus enhances activity. 
         [0018]    The present invention comprises a method for using anomalous dispersion to enhance the RLG scale factor introducing a combination of Ne-21, Ne-20 and Ne-22 into the cavity of the ring laser gyroscope. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0019]    Preferred and alternative examples of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings: 
           [0020]      FIG. 1  shows a top view of a ring laser gyroscope of the prior art; 
           [0021]      FIG. 2  shows a top view of a ring laser gyroscope of the present invention; 
           [0022]    FIG.  3 - 1 - 3 - 4  is a schematic representation of normal gain splitting in a standard He—Ne laser and gain splitting created by the introduction of a magnetic field, hyperfine splitting, and/or any other method of splitting Neon energy levels; 
           [0023]      FIG. 4-1  and  4 - 2  is a graphic demonstration of the typical lasing lines in Neon and the corresponding chart of the transitions and lasing wavelengths; and 
           [0024]      FIG. 5  is a graphic representation of potential gain splitting generated by the introduction of a magnetic field and/or nuclear spin gas Ne-21 into the lazing medium as a function of frequency. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0025]    An embodiment of the invention introduces a mixture of Ne-21 and naturally occurring gases Ne-20 and Ne-22 to generate the bi-frequency gain into the gain bore. Ne-21, unlike Ne-20 and Ne-22 has nuclear spin, therefore its energy levels have hyperfine splitting, due to the coupling of the nuclear spin with the electron spin and angular momentum. This hyperfine splitting can split the gain peaks and provide the necessary condition for anomalous dispersion absent absorption. The hyperfine splitting provides a stable separation between the gain peaks that is both independent of temperature and vibration, and therefore the resulting dispersive slope is also very stable, in-turn producing a stable gyro scale factor. This potential means for producing the necessary conditions is a manufacturing-friendly and should be able to make use of the RLG in its present form. Ne-21 is non-radioactive. 
         [0026]    In general the anomalous dispersion results when the refractive index verses the frequency has a negative slope. This condition can be created (absent absorption) by creating bi-frequency gain peaks in the medium. Via the Kramer-Kronig relationship, the frequency regime between the gain peaks would have anomalous dispersion and the steep index grating would cause enhanced resonate frequency splitting under rotation. 
         [0027]    It has been experimentally demonstrated by Ferguson and Morris (1978) that a HeNe laser in a magnetic field has a split gain profile graphically depicted  FIG. 3-4 . When lasing the population of the metastable Ne state experiences gain as shown in  FIG. 3-1 . When the metastable state is split due to hyperfine interaction (subject of this invention) or magnetic field (demonstrated), the gain profiles splits in frequency analogous to the frequency difference between the split energy levels (graphically depiced in  FIG. 3-2 ). Using the Kramers-Kronig relationship, no matter the mechanism for the gain splitting, the frequency range between the peaks will exhibit anomalous dispersion. See  FIG. 3-1  showing the HeNe lasing mechanism in a single isotope with no nuclear spin compared  FIG. 3-2 , an example of a HeNe laser with a single isotope with, for example, nuclear spin. It is important to note however, that while similar results are achieved using either a magnetic field or a gain isotope with nuclear spin, the gyro scale factor is much more stable using the nuclear spin to produce the gain peaks. If a magnetic field is used, the frequency splitting will change as the local magnetic field changes. As a consequence, the change in magnetic field would change the dispersive slope and hence the scale factor, requiring magnetic field shielding to stabilize the scale factor. The excess magnetic field shielding needed to make the scale factor stable adds both weight and size to the gyro design, a problem eliminated in the instant invention. 
         [0028]    According to an embodiment of the invention,  FIG. 2  illustrates a ring laser gyroscope  40  having a block  42  in which interior passages  44  are formed. Mirrors  46 ,  48 , and  50  are provided at the corners with one of the mirrors  46 ,  48 , and  50  being used as a read-out device. The interior passages  44  and the mirrors  46 ,  48 , and  50  define a plasma chamber in the form of a closed laser resonant path. An embodiment of the present invention includes a nuclear spin gas, for example Ne-21, with other lasing gases in the plasma chamber to enhance the sensitivity of the ring laser gyroscope (RLG) at low rotation rates. 
         [0029]    Electrodes (a cathode  52  and an anode  54  and  56 ) engage corresponding surfaces of the block  42  at openings there through. Seals are provided between the block  42  and the cathode  52  and the anodes  54  and  56  in order to confine the gas that is energized to provide a laser plasma within the plasma chamber. 
         [0030]    A source  60  maintains anodes  54  and  56  positive with respect to a reference (e.g., ground) potential and to maintain the cathode  52  negative with respect to the reference potential. For example, the source  60  maintains each of the anodes  54  and  56  at +200 volts and maintains the cathode  52  at −250 volts. 
         [0031]    The ring laser gyro  40  of an embodiment of the present invention is a Helium-Neon RLGs. The interior passage  44  is filled with the lasing gain medium, and in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, contains a mixture of Ne-21, Ne-22, and Ne-20 gases. 
         [0032]    The present invention induces an anomalous dispersion ( FIG. 5 ) based on the nuclear spin of the Ne-21, a non-radioactive Neon isotope. In the HeNe RLG of the prior art, the lasing gas comprises Ne-20 and Ne-22, both stable isotopes with no nuclear spin, and as a consequence there is no hyperfine coupling and the lasing gas has a single Is ground state and a 2p4 meta-stable state. Additional 2p states are separated by several nanometers (nm); sufficient that we can consider the 2p4 state to be isolated ( FIG. 4-1  and  FIG. 4-2 ). The Ne-20 and Ne-22 electrons emit energy and fall into the single 2p4 metastable state as shown in  FIG. 3-1 . The gain into this state is represented by a single Gaussian curve  FIG. 3-3  (also,  FIG. 4-1  and  4 - 2  demonstrating 3s2 to 2p4 transitions as the center of Gaussian curve). 
         [0033]    With the addition of Ne-21, a stable isotope of Ne, the nuclear spin and the electron spin of an atom couples, i.e. hyperfine coupling, creating dual gain peaks ( FIG. 5 ) where photons emit in two hyperfine split states creating the conditions for anomalous dispersion of frequencies in the bandwidth between the dual gain peaks (i.e. for frequencies less that the hyperfine splitting). This dual gain peaks will be in addition to the typical gain seen with a HeNe laser using Ne-20 and Ne-22 as the gain medium. Therefore, similar to the bi-frequency gain splitting seen in the aforementioned magnetic field and as exemplified in general in  FIG. 3-2  and  3 - 4 , an anomalous dispersion is created purely with nuclear spin of the Ne-21 atom. 
         [0034]    Currently, despite the high reflectivity of the mirrors there is still some backscatter of light off the mirrors into the wrong direction in the RLG, and the beat-note calculation doesn&#39;t work, thereby creating lock-in at low rotation rates; the RLG may be rotating but the rotation rate cannot be measured because the two frequency splitting between the clockwise and counterclockwise light cannot be distinguished. Presently, prior art RLG mechanically manipulate the frequency of light, i.e. the frequency of the light is mechanically dithered to deal with the lock-in affect. However, in an embodiment of the present invention, this anomalous dispersion has a nonlinear scale factor enhancement: at low rotation rates (and thus low resonant frequency splittings between the clockwise and counterclockwise beams) the scale factor enhancement is the largest and at large rotation rates (and thus large resonant frequency splittings between the clockwise and counterclockwise beams) the scale factor enhancement approaches unity. For example, in the present invention because of the enhancement of the scale factor by the anomalous dispersion, the RLG can detect rotation at low frequencies without mechanical biasing by dithering the light frequencies in the RLG. In effect, the mixture of the radioactive lasing gas Ne-21 creates an anomalous dispersion pushing the lock-in frequency down to a minimal level thus eliminating the necessity of the dither motor  28  ( FIG. 1 ). As illustrated in  FIG. 2  the ring laser gyro of the present invention eliminates the dither motor  28  of the prior art. It is expected that this enhancement will greatly increase the gyro scale factor for low rotations and removing the dither will improve the angle-random walk performance of the gyro. 
         [0035]    While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, other mixtures of lasing gases and isotopes are contemplated, and the percentage mixture of gases can vary without departure from the spirit of the invention. For example, almost every element has an isotope that has nuclear spin, and could be used as the lasing gas medium. Additionally, helium could potentially be eliminated in the present invention, and a pure Neon gas combination could be used. Other inert gases such as, but not limited, to Krypton or Argon, and Xenon can be used in RLG.