Patent ID: 7319513

Claim:
Gyrolaser to measure the angular speed or the relative angular position according to a set rotation axis, comprising at least: a solid-state amplifying medium; a slaving device including at least a first optical assembly made up of a first linear polarizer, a first nonreciprocal optical rotator and an optical element, said optical element being either a reciprocal optical rotator or a birefringent element, with at least one of the effects of the birefringence being adjustable; a measuring instrument; a ring-shaped optical cavity comprising a second optical assembly made up successively of a first quarter waveplate, a second nonreciprocal optical rotator and a second quarter waveplate, whose main axes and perpendicular to those of the first quarter waveplate; such that a first linearly polarized propagation mode can propagate in a first direction in the cavity, and a second propagation mode polarized linearly parallel to the first can propagate in the opposite direction in the cavity, with the main axes of the first quarter waveplate and the second quarter waveplate tilted 45 degree relative to the linear polarization directions of the propagation modes, the optical frequencies of the two modes being different.