Optical rotation sensing by the geometric effect of fiber-loop twisting

An optical technique for sensing a rotation angle is described and experimental results are presented. When a loop of an ideal fiber that exerts no linear birefringence is deformed into a nonplanar curve, the azimuth angle of linearly polarized light propagated in the fiber is rotated. The technique is based on this effect of geometric polarization rotation in an optical fiber. A twisted single-mode fiber is substituted for the ideal fiber. Experimental results include studies of polarization rotation and variations of light propagated in a loop of a twisted single-mode fiber under deformation.