Lu Guangfeng, Fan Zhenfang, Hu Shaomin, Luo Hui
Department of Optoelectronic Engineering, College of Optoelectrics Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China.
Opt Express. 2013 Jun 17;21(12):14458-65. doi: 10.1364/OE.21.014458.
In this letter, the relationship between the change of the closed-loop optical path and the movement of two adjacent spherical mirrors in ring laser gyros is investigated by matrix optical approach. When one spherical mirror is pushed forward and the other is pulled backward to maintain the total length of the closed-loop optical path constant, an equivalent rotation of the closed-loop optical path is found for the first time. Both numerical simulations and experimental results show the equivalent rotation rate is proportional to the velocities of the mirrors' movement.
