CAVITY LENGTH CONTROLLER FOR RING LASER GYROSCOPE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

A mechanically self-stabilized cavity length controller for use within a ring laser gyroscope, including piezoelectric elements which are employed to move mirrors and effect a change of the laser path length. More particularly, a cavity length controller consisting of component parts fabricated from dissimilar materials, and configured so as to largely cancel any thermally-induced dimensional variations by virtue of the differential thermal expansion rates of the various component parts. The cavity length controller also includes two piezoelectric plates affixed to opposite sides of a deformable diaphragm which is coupled to a mirrored surface within the cavity. To correct for any nominal, thermally-induced cavity variations which might still be evident in a cavity employing the controller, an electrical potential is applied to the piezoelectric plates, causing the radial expansion of one plate and the simultaneous radial contraction of the other, thereby deforming the diaphragm. This deformation results in a corresponding shift in the displacement of the coupled mirrored surface. Such a shift would effectively vary the length of a laser path which included the mirrored surface.

Source: Google Patents

35 USC §181 Secrecy Order

Inventor

• 1JOHN H. MOODY

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