Self-modulated stimulated emission from solid-state ring lasers with nonplanar resonators

A new approach is developed for the description of self-modulated operation of solid-state ring lasers. This type of operation is considered as a superposition of two normal modes of a ring resonator with retroreflectors. The normal modes of ring resonators with retroreflectors are found using the 4 X 4 matrix formalism. The frequency characteristics of rotating nonplanar ring lasers, including monolithic chip lasers, are calculated.