White-light-driven resonant fiber-optic gyro based on round trip filtering scheme

As the second generation of the fiber-optic gyro (FOG), a resonant FOG (RFOG) appears as a very viable candidate for a miniaturized optical gyro. However, due to the impediment of laser-induced parasitic noise and system complexity, the actual performance of the RFOG is well below expectations. This paper proposes a novel, to the best of our knowledge, RFOG which is driven by broadband white light rather than a narrow linewidth laser. The fiber-optic ring resonator (FRR) works as a filter, and the rotation under detection is read out from the round trip loss of the FRR. The parasitic noise is effectively avoided due to the low coherence light, and the measuring resolution can be thus improved. In the experiment, a bias instability of 0.012 ^∘/h is demonstrated with a 100-m fiber coil and a very simple structure. The proposed method would be a big step forward for making the RFOG practical with high performance and low cost.