Ring laser gyroscope

B.C. Passenheim, C.E. Mallon Nuclear radiation vulnerability of ring laser gyroscope , SPIE Vol. 157 Laser Inertial Rotation Sensors, 205-211 (1978)... 

In 2001, the so-called G ring laser gyroscope was taken into service at the Wettzell Fundamental Research Station with the purpose of precisely measuring the Earth s rotation. 

The frequency difference occurring with the normal variations in the Earth s rotation in the course of a day is 10 s out of a frequency of 300 s . To be able to record such minute differences, the sensitivity of the G ring laser gyroscope has to be more than a thousand times higher than that of normal gyroscopes used, for example, in navigation systems. 

Applications include transparent cookware (Visions , thermal expansion = 7 x 10 V°C), optical materials (e.g., ring-laser gyroscopes), telescope mirror blanks (Zerodur ), infrared-transmitting electric range tops, wood-stove windows, fire door glazing... 

Ring Lasers and Gyroscopes. In the last few decades, laser interferometers have started to replace mechanical gyroscopes in many aircraft navigation systems. In these interferometers, the laser light is reflected off of mirrors such that the two beams travel in opposite directions to each other in a ring, recombining to produce an interference pattern at... 

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