A device for measuring a magnetic induction comprises an evaluation device including a source for emitting light and a receiver for receiving light. A resonator is located in the light path between the source and the receiver and comprises first and second parallel mirrors and a gaseous medium occupying the space between the two mirrors. A converter is coupled to one of the mirrors for shifting one of said mirrors along an optical axis of the resonator so that the optical length of the resonator varies in response to the induction to be measured.

A velocity interferometer has a continuously variable sensitivity and is particularly applicable to the study of the movement of reflecting polished surfaces or back-scattered rough surfaces. The interferometer is a Michelson interferometer with a widened field comprising in a per se known manner a light splitter and two light reflectors, one of which is associated with a medium having parallel faces. The medium is constituted by a fluid in which the associated reflector is immersed and displaceable in translation parallel to the path of the light falling on it, the other reflector also being displaceable in translation parallel to the path of the light falling thereon.

The tensorial nature of the nonlinear constant or the electro-optic coefficient of the phase conjugate material makes it impossible to perform true phase conjugation of fields with arbitrary polarization states, i.e., to recover the polarization state of the incident light of arbitrary polarization after the phase conjugation. It is demonstrated here that an optical wave propagating through a polarization and mode scrambling medium can regain its original polarization state after phase conjugation followed by reverse propagation through the polarization and mode scrambling medium. Such polarization recovery is achieved even while a magnetic field is applied to the medium, but with power loss proportional to the magnitude of the magnetic field.

An optical ionization detector wherein a beam of light is split so that one arm passes through a fiber optics and the other arm passes through a gas-filled region, and uses interferometry to detect density changes in a gas when charged particles pass through it. The gas-filled region of the detector is subjected to a high electric field and as a charged particle traverses this gas region electrons are freed from the cathode and accelerated so as to generate an electron avalanche which is collected on the anode. The gas density is effected by the electron avalanche formation and if the index or refraction is proportional to the gas density the index will change accordingly. The detector uses this index change by modulating the one arm of the split light beam passing through the gas, with respect to the other arm that is passed through the fiber optic. Upon recombining of the beams, interference fringe changes as a function of the index change indicates the passage of charged particles through the gaseous medium.

Integrated optic sensors for measuring electric, magnetic and temperature fields. Each sensor comprises an interferometer that includes first and second arms, each arm comprising an optical waveguide formed in a substrate. The interferometer includes a field sensitive material positioned adjacent the first arm for varying the optical path length of the first arm in accordance with the applied field. Electric, magnetic and temperature field sensors are provided that are based upon stress induced refractive index changes induced in the first arm. Electric and magnetic field sensors are disclosed based upon evanescent field coupling between the field sensitive material and the first arm. A dual ring resonator embodiment is also described.