title: The intra-cavity phase anisotropy and the polarization flipping in HeNe laser.
abstract: The effect of intra-cavity phase anisotropy on polarization flipping induced by optical feedback is experimentally and theoretically investigated. In experiments, we place a polarizer in feedback cavity to induce polarization flipping. The polarization flipping doesn't occur when the angle between polarizer axis and laser polarization approaches 45°. It is found that the larger the phase anisotropy is, the more easily the polarization flipping happens. As the intra-cavity phase anisotropy is increased, polarization flipping always occurs when the angle between polarizer axis and laser polarization is changed from 0° to 90°. This indicates that the phase anisotropy of the laser cavity contributes to the polarization flipping. It is necessary to keep certain phase anisotropy for the lasers used for polarization control.
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shulian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li