Utilization of competition between counterpropagating waves for modulation and stabilization of the radiation emitted from a ring laser

Theoretical and experimental investigations were made of the possibility of increasing the efficiency of intracavity modulation and stabilization of the radiation emitted from ring lasers by utilization of the competition between counterpropagating waves. It was established that in the case of solid-state ring lasers one can switch rapidly the direction of counterpropagating waves both in the case of forced mode locking and in the case of single-mode emission without spike transient processes at a relaxation frequency typical of solid-state lasers. An analysis was made of the conditions for significant reduction of the switching time and a method is suggested for achieving this by simultaneous modulation of the amplitude nonreciprocity and of the coupling between counterpropagating waves. It is shown that highly stable unidirectional single-mode operation of a solid-state ring laser can be achieved as a result of weak modulation of the resonator perimeter. Various time dependences of the intensities of counterpropagating waves and stabilization of bidirectional operation of a solid-state ring laser were achieved using a magnetooptic feedback loop.