An ultralarge ring He–Ne ring laser gyroscope, UG-2, with area 834 m2 and dimensions 39.7×21 m2, has been built underground at Cashmere Cavern, Christchurch, New Zealand (latitude −43.575°). Earth rotation is sufficient to unlock it, giving a Sagnac frequency of 2.18 kHz. Supermirrors are used with transmission ∼0.18 parts per million (ppm) and optical loss unexpectedly high at ∼200 ppm per reflection. The cavity Q is 1.5×1012. Residual Sagnac frequency error caused by backscatter coupling is measured as <2 parts in 108. Its best stability is achieved for an averaging time of ∼2000 s, for which the Allan Deviation of the Sagnac frequency is 0.08 mHz, or four parts in 108 of Earth rotation rate. The dominant processes generating the residual rotational noise are, for times <10 s, microseismic ground movements, and for times >1000 s, mechanical movement of the mirror assemblies, which act to change the geometrical dimensions and tilt. At all averaging times the residual rotational noise is well above the limit imposed by quantum phase fluctuations. It is concluded from comparisons among many large ring lasers that the excess mirror losses arise from high order aberrations, and UG-2 may be larger than the optimum size.

The design and operation of a proof-of-principle rectangular He-Ne ring laser resonator with a cavity perimeter of 77.0 m and an area of approximately 367 m2 are described. With unevacuated beam lines this device gave an Earth-induced Sagnac frequency of 1513 Hz, with a relative Allan deviation over 1000 s down to 3 parts per million. The Earth's rotation provided a bias that eliminated the lock-in susceptibility. The use of increased pressure in the plasma tube facilitated single-mode operation by increasing the homogeneous pressure-broadened linewidth.

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Contrary to expectations based on mode spacing, single-mode operation in very large He-Ne ring lasers may be achieved at intracavity power levels up to approximately0.15 times the saturation intensity for the He-Ne transition. Homogeneous line broadening at a high total gas pressure of 4-6 Torr allows a single-peaked gain profile that suppresses closely spaced multiple modes. At startup, decay of initial multiple modes may take tens of seconds. The single remaining mode in each direction persists metastably as the cavity is detuned by many times the mode frequency spacing. A theoretical explanation requires the gain profile to be concave down and to satisfy an inequality related to slope and saturation at the operating frequency. Calculated metastable frequency ranges are > 150 MHz at 6 Torr and depend strongly on pressure. Examples of unusual stable mode configurations are shown, with differently numbered modes in the two directions and with multiple modes at a spacing of approximately 100 MHz.

We describe the construction and operation of a large ring laser whose beam paths enclose an area of 6.25 m 2 . The gyroscopic performance of this large laser interferometer was determined using laser operation at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. The laser cavity Q was inferred to be 1.1 × 10 12 via a measured ring-down time of 375 µs, and the measured Sagnac frequency is 198.40 Hz due to Earth’s rotation. The measured experimental sensitivity to rotation achieved is 7.9 × 10 − 12 r a d / s / H z at an averaging interval of 512 s (being limited primarily by ambient building noise). The observation of microseismic activity in the 200 mHz region as well as local earthquakes is discussed.