New Approaches to Optical Systems for Inertial Rotation Sensing
Abstract
The objective of the program is to determine the potential of new fiber optic approaches to inertial rotation sensing. The system presently under investigation is a passive reentrant Sagnac system (PRS) in which light pulses from an external laser, propagating clockwise and counterclockwise around a multiturn sensing loop of single-mode optical fiber, are repetitively recirculated around the multiturn loop a multiplicity of times to increase the sensitivity of the system to inertial rotation. It is shown experimentally that five recirculations around a loop consisting of 600 meters of single mode fiber are possible using bulk optical components of standard precision, with behavior in accordance with theory. This has potential application to small rate-gyros. Work is proceeding on an all-fiber integrated version of the PRS system, which will circumvent serious optical alignment problems encountered with bulk components, and is designed to greatly increase performance as well as reducing size, weight and cost. An optical fiber amplifier being developed under a companion program will be introduced later into this system, to compensate for fiber propagation losses, forming an active reentrant Sagnac system (ARS), designed to permit a very large number of recirculations, forming an integrating-rate-gyro with potential for extreme sensitivity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA082533
Entities
People
- G. Pavlath
- Herbert John Shaw
- M. Chodorow
Organizations
- Stanford University