Title :
Coupled Spiral Interferometer Gyroscope
Author :
Wenqiong Guo ; Digonnet, Michel J. F.
Author_Institution :
Appl. Phys. Dept., Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA, USA
Abstract :
This paper reports a study of the sensitivity to an absolute rotation of an optical gyroscope in which the sensing element is a coupled spiral interferometer (CSPIN), which is a spiral waveguide with coupling between adjacent arms. The two physical sensing mechanisms that contribute to this sensitivity are discussed. Numerical simulations show that after optimization, a CSPIN gyroscope has the same maximum possible sensitivity as an optimized resonant waveguide optical gyroscope with the same radius and loss coefficient. This maximum sensitivity is independent of the number of arms, and it decreases as the reciprocal of the waveguide loss coefficient.
Keywords :
gyroscopes; light interferometers; numerical analysis; optical losses; optical resonators; optical rotation; optical sensors; optical waveguides; optimisation; CSPIN gyroscope; absolute rotation; adjacent arms; arm number; coupled spiral interferometer gyroscope; maximum possible sensitivity; numerical simulations; optimization; optimized resonant waveguide optical gyroscope; physical sensing mechanisms; radius coefficient; reciprocal waveguide loss coefficient; sensing element; spiral waveguide; Couplings; Gyroscopes; Optical coupling; Optical resonators; Optical sensors; Optical waveguides; Sensitivity; Interferometry; optical resonators; optical sensors; optical waveguides; rotation measurement;
Journal_Title :
Lightwave Technology, Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JLT.2014.2355817
