Optical biasing of a ring laser gyroscope with a quantum well mirror

The authors present a discussion on a quantum well mirror (QWM), a semiconductor optical biasing element for a ring laser gyroscope (RLG). The QWM uses the quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) to move the plane of reflection from its back surface multi-layered mirror to its front edge filter composed of multiple quantum wells. This movement in the plane of reflection when performed in conjunction with a second QWM causes the laser beams in a RLG to move across the mirror´s surface Doppler shifting the back scattered light, breaking the deadband lock-in. The theory of operation of the QWM and how the Doppler shifted backscattered light is produced by the movement of the planes of reflection in the QWMs are discussed. Information is presented on the current design, the experimental set up and experimental data from the QWM´s front edge filter (FEF) and back surface mirror