ELECTRIC FIELD CONTROLLED SOLID-STATE LASER AND METHOD OF SHIFTING SOLID-STATE LASER FREQUENCY Russian patent published in 2011 - IPC H01S3/10 

FIELD: physics, optics.

SUBSTANCE: laser consists of the following, arranged in series on one optical axis: laser radiation source, polariser, telescopic system of two lenses, a convergent cylindrical lens and a solid-state active element in form of a rectangular prism. One of the side faces of the prism has an element based on a sol-gel sample doped with active centres, while the second side face has a reflecting layer. Between the radiation source and the active element there is an electro-optical deflector having optically connected liquid-crystal twist-cell which is controlled by an electric field and a birefringent prism. The method of shifting the laser frequency involves exciting its active element with initial laser radiation in form of two converging coherent light beams to create a distributed feedback in form of periodic variation of optical parameters of the active element due to interference of these two beams. The angle of incidence of the initial radiation on the active element is measured by passing it through the liquid-crystal twist-cell and through the birefringent prism. The electric field controlled twist-cell changes the polarisation plane of the initial radiation by 90°, and the birefringent prism deflects the initial radiation with different polarisation planes by different angles.

EFFECT: possibility of controlling generation wavelength of a solid-state laser on active centres using voltage.

2 cl, 4 dwg