Abstract
We demonstrate that by driving a fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) with a
laser of relatively broad linewidth (~10 MHz), both the noise and the bias drift are reduced
to very low levels (0.058°/√ and 1.1°/h, respectively), comparable to the performance of the same
gyroscope conventionally driven with a broadband light source. When the laser
linewidth is reduced to a low enough value (~2.2 kHz), the FOG exhibits
a higher drift but an even lower noise, about 4 dB lower than with a broadband
source, and only 3.5 dB above shot noise. The measured dependencies of the
noise and drift on laser linewidth are in good quantitative agreement with
the predictions of an advanced model of backscattering errors in a FOG interrogated
with coherent light, which confirms that the noise and drift are predominantly
limited by backscattering. The use of a laser comes with the additional benefit
of a much greater wavelength stability compared to a broadband source, which
is expected to translate directly into a much more stable scale factor than
possible in conventional FOGs. Residual sources of drift and the prospects
for reducing them in order to achieve inertial navigation performance are
discussed.
© 2013 IEEE
PDF Article
More Like This
Cited By
You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.
Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription