Suppression of backreflection error in resonator integrated optic gyro by the phase difference traversal method

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Optical Engineering
• Inertial Navigation

Background:

• Resonator Integrated Optic Gyros (RIOG) are susceptible to backreflection-induced errors.
• These errors manifest as periodical, sine/cosine-like zero-bias fluctuations.
• Existing methods struggle to effectively mitigate these fluctuations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate the phase difference traversal (PDT) method for suppressing backreflection errors in RIOG.
• To achieve superior bias stability in silica waveguide ring resonator-based RIOGs.

Main Methods:

• Implementing the phase difference traversal (PDT) method by rapidly modulating the phase difference between counter-propagating light.
• Utilizing multi-wave hybrid phase modulation to traverse the phase difference.
• Employing in-phase modulation to establish the optimal operation point.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated effective suppression of backreflection-induced errors.
• Achieved a short-term bias stability of 0.0055 deg/s.
• Attained a long-term bias stability of 0.013 deg/s, representing state-of-the-art performance for this type of RIOG.

Conclusions:

• The PDT method is a highly effective technique for error suppression in RIOG.
• The demonstrated bias stability represents a significant advancement in RIOG technology.
• This work sets a new benchmark for buried-type silica waveguide ring resonator-based RIOGs.