Motion induced elimination of dead band in a short pulse laser gyro

摘要

A passively mode-locked laser gyro having a saturable absorber in constant motion. The saturable absorber is mechanically vibrated or rotated in a direction transverse to the longitudinal pulses passing through the absorber. The vibrational or rotational motion of the absorber dithers the effective scattering error source. The saturable absorber may be a multiple quantum well device. The multiple quantum well device may be attached to two dither drives to provide continuous circular motion of the multiple quantum well device. The motion generator can generate both linear and non-linear motion. The passively mode-locked laser qyro may be constructed from fiber optics with a bias modulator and gain medium.