Drift of an optical fiber gyroscope caused by the Faraday effect: Experiment

Mechanism of the drift generation by the Faraday effect in the optical fiber gyroscope with polarization maintaining fiber coil is studied in the experiments. The results are in good agreement with the theory which we presented previously. The presence of the fiber twist component whose period is just equal to one turn of the polarization-maintaining fiber coil is shown experimentally to cause the drift. The reduction of such a special twin component is essential to reduce the drift caused by the Faraday effect.