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The results are reported of a theoretical and experimental investigation of the influence of resonance radiation trapping on the Zeeman effect in a ring laser. The experimentally observed strong dependence of the Zeeman beat frequency on the radiation intensity can be explained in a natural manner if allowance is made for the radiation trapping. This dependence provides a convenient means for determining the constants characterizing the influence of radiation trapping on the operation of gas lasers.

An investigation was made of the impact and inhomogeneous broadening of a line emitted by a traveling-wave helium–neon laser with a circularly anisotropic resonator. The pressure dependences of the beats between the opposite waves were determined experimentally for two Ne20–Ne22 isotopic mixtures (99.7 and 53% Ne20) and for three ratios of the partial pressures of the components pHe:pNe = 14:1, 9:1, and 4:1. The pressure dependences of the beat frequency were also calculated for parameters of the homogeneous (γab) and inhomogeneous (ku) broadening taken from the experimental data. The rates of change of γab with the partial pressures of He and Ne (∂γab/∂pHe = 28.4 ± 1 and ∂γab/∂pNe = 9.5 ± 2.5 MHz/mm Hg) and the value of ku (480 ± 15 MHz) were determined.

A direct method is proposed for the determination of the difference between the populations of the Zeeman sublevels of laser transitions. This method is based on the measurement of the difference between the widths of the frequency range of stimulated emission of opposite waves in a traveling-wave laser with a circularly anisotropic resonator. Measurements were made of the difference between the populations of the Zeeman sublevels of the 2s2–2p4 transition in neon. These measurements were carried out for different pressures in the working mixture as well as for the different magnetic fields and isotropic concentrations. It was found that the difference between the populations (if it existed at all) did not exceed the experimental error of 0.0015%.