Lock-in frequency improvement of ring laser gyro using a low - scattering mirror

For the improvement of the lock-in frequency of a ring laser gyro, a low-scattering mirror was employed in the laser resonator. A super-polishing technique produced fine mirror substrates of less than 1-A-rms-roughness. The mirror coating using an ionbeam sputtering technique reduced the scattering loss to less than 30 ppm. As a result of the mirror scattering enhancement of the ring laser, the lock-in frequency of the gyro was improved up to about 0.1 deg/sec.