A new method to measure the spin polarization of optically pumped alkali-metal atoms is demonstrated. Unlike the conventional method using far-detuned probe light, the near-resonant light with two specific frequencies was chosen. Because the Faraday rotation angle of this approach can be two orders of magnitude greater than that with the conventional method, this approach is more sensitive to the spin polarization. Based on the results of the experimental scheme, the spin polarization measurements are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of this approach.

To the best of our knowledge, the generalized ray matrix, an augmented 5×5 ray matrix for a spherical mirror reflection with all the possible perturbation sources including three kinds of displacements and its detailed deducing process have been proposed in this paper for the first time. Square ring resonators and monolithic triaxial ring resonators have been chosen as examples to show its application, and some novel results of the optical-axis perturbation have been obtained. A novel method to eliminate the diaphragm mismatching error and the gain capillary mismatching error in monolithic triaxial ring resonators more effectively has also been proposed. Both those results and method have been confirmed by related experiments and the experimental results have been described with diagrammatic representation. This generalized ray matrix is valuable for ray analysis of various kinds of resonators. These results are important for the cavity design, cavity improvement and alignment of high accuracy and super high accuracy ring laser gyroscopes.

Several findings on the modes of a nonplanar ring resonator have been carried out by utilizing the matrix method of generalized Gaussian beams. The widely used nonplanar ring resonator—a four-equal-sided nonplanar ring cavity with two curvature mirrors and two planar mirrors—has been chosen as an example. The overall stability maps of this typical nonplanar ring cavity with L∕R ranging from 0 to ∞ are calculated and described, while the total cavity length is L and the radius of the curvature mirrors is R. The stability map has also been found to have asymmetry with total image rotation ρ ranging from $0°$ to $360°$ and $0<L/R<2$. It has also been found that there still exist several stable regions in the extended region with $L/R>2$. The Gaussian modes of the nonplanar ring cavity have been found to have different characteristics with different design parameters such as ρ and $L/R$. The azimuth angles of the major and minor axes of the spot size have been found to be variable with different design parameters such as ρ and $L/R$ and variable under different location of the nonplanar cavity. These interesting findings are totally different from the behavior of conventional planar stable resonators and are important to the cavity designs of nonplanar ring resonators.

The hemispherical shell resonator (HSR) is the core element of the hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG), and its frequency mismatch is a key property influencing gyroscope accuracy. Investigating the mechanism of frequency mismatch is vital for improving the quality of HSRs and performance of HRGs. Midsurface radius imperfections and thickness imperfections are two principal causes of frequency mismatch, but their combined effects have rarely been discussed. This paper develops a model to comprehensively analyze the frequency mismatch of HSRs with both radius and thickness imperfections. The model derives a quantitative relation between the frequency mismatch and the two imperfections, and provides principles for evaluating dominant imperfections. To validate the model, we conduct experiments on a batch of 12 HSRs with random geometric imperfections. We apply the model in calculating the theoretical frequency mismatches of these HSRs, and the results agree well with the experimental data. The experiment also confirms that for macro-HSRs, thickness imperfections have a larger impact than radius imperfections, and the frequency mismatch is approximately linear to the fourth thickness harmonic. Our research can be a useful reference for the design and fabrication of HSRs and may open new possibilities for high-precision manufacture of HRGs.

The Bell–Bloom magnetometer in response to a magnetic field of arbitrary direction is observed theoretically and experimentally. A theoretical model is built from a macroscopic view to simulate the magnetometer frequency response to an external magnetic field of arbitrary direction. Based on the simulation results, the magnetometer characteristics, including the signal phase and amplitude at resonance, the linewidth, and the magnetometer sensitivity, are analyzed, and the dependencies of these characteristics on the external magnetic field direction are obtained, which are verified by the experiment.

Fused silica cylindrical resonant gyroscope (CRG) is a novel high-precision solid-wave gyroscope, whose performance is primarily determined by the cylindrical resonator’s frequency split and quality factor (Q factor). The laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is extensively used to measure the dynamic behavior of fused silica cylindrical resonators. An electrical method was proposed to characterize the dynamic behavior of the cylindrical resonator to enhance the measurement efficiency and decrease the equipment cost. With the data acquisition system and the designed signal analysis program based on LabVIEW software, the dynamic behavior of the fused silica cylindrical resonator can be analyzed automatically and quickly. We compared all the electrical measurement results with the optical detection by LDV, demonstrating that the fast Fourier transform (FFT) result of the resonant frequency measured by the electrical method was 0.12 Hz higher than that with the optical method. Thus, the frequency split measured by the electrical and optical methods was the same in 0.18 Hz, and the measurement of the Q factor was basically the same in 730,000. We conducted all measurements under the same operation condition, and the optical method was used as a reference, demonstrating that the electrical method could characterize the dynamic behavior of the fused silica cylindrical resonator and enhance the measurement efficiency.