Interaction of modes characterized by orthogonal circular polarizations in a ring Zeeman laser

A theoretical and experimental investigation was made of the dependence, on the detuning of the resonator (relative to the center of the gain profile), of the intensities of the opposite traveling orthogonalmode waves. The dependences were found of the width of the detuning region within which a four-wave lasing regime exists on the ratio of the gain to the losses, pressure of the active medium, and strength of the longitudinal magnetic field applied to it. The results of an experiment, carried out using an He–Ne laser operating at a wavelength of 1.15 μ, were in satisfactory quantitative agreement with a theory in which radiation trapping is taken into account and the usual phenomenological approach is employed to describe the pressure effects.