Optically compensated dual-polarization interferometric fiber-optic gyroscope

Abstract

We first introduce optical compensation into the field of interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes (IFOGs), using the opposite polarity of the disturbance between two orthogonal polarization states to suppress polarization- fluctuationinduced noise. A dual-polarized IFOG, in which the fast and slow axes of polarization-maintaining fiber work simultaneously, is implemented and tested. Interference signals of the two axes are added to achieve optical compensation. Experiments show that the IFOG's sensitivity is effectively enhanced in compensated output: all Allan variance indices are improved, among which bias instability is reduced from 0.335 and 0.227 deg ? h (fast and slow axes output, respectively) to 0.061 deg ? h. © 2012 Optical Society of America.