Natural fluctuations of the polarization of the radiation emitted from a helium-neon laser with a weakly anisotropic resonator

A theory is developed of the stability of the polarization of the radiation emitted by a single-mode cw laser with a weakly anisotropic resonator subject to random perturbations. Expressions are obtained for estimating natural fluctuations of the linear polarization. Measurements are reported of the spectral density of these fluctuations in the case of a helium-neon laser with internal mirrors.