Figure 1

A diagram of an external ring cavity. A ray that is only transmitted through the mirrors $R$ and $R^{\prime }$ (not reflected) and travels a distance $d=2s_1+s_2+s_3+s_4$. The perimeter of the cavity is $l=2s_1+2s_2$.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

(Color online) The degree of polarization, calculated by the geometrical optics model, at the output as a function of cavity size parameter $kl$. In panel (a), the incident field is more TE polarized, that is, the spectral density for the TE component of the field is 3 times larger than the spectral density for the TM component of the field, and the incident field has degree of polarization $\mathcal{P}=0.5$. In panel (b), the incident field is more TM polarized, that is, the spectral density for the TM component of the field is 3 times larger than the spectral density for the TE component of the field, and the incident field has degree of polarization $\mathcal{P}=0.5$. The mirrors $R$ and $R^{\prime }$ are identical dielectric mirrors with thickness $t=31\lambda$, $ϵ=11.34{ϵ}_0$, and $\mu ={\mu }_0$.Reuse & Permissions

Figure 3

(Color online) The degree of polarization, $\mathcal{P}\left(z\right)$, calculated from the present theory, as a function of distance traversed through the biaxial media with $n_{\text{dif}}=0.0019$ and ${\sigma }_{\omega }=8.37\times {10}^{13}\text{rad}/\text{s}$. The centerline frequency is ${\omega }_c=1.45\times {10}^{15}\text{rad}/\text{s}$.Reuse & Permissions