Abstract: An improved fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) is proposed for enhancing the optical measurement sensitivity through the application of a heterodyne effect. The improved FOG is characterized by the use of a dual-injection polarization-maintaining 3×3 directional coupler which is configured to receive a pair of source light beams that are injected thereinto in a bi-directional manner. The forward-injected light beam is used to be split into a pair of interrogating beams for use by a coiled optical fiber to implement the detection and measurement of the Sagnac effect due to a rotational movement. On the other hand, the backward-injected light beam is used to be mixed with the paired interrogating beams that have passed through and returned from the coiled optical fiber to thereby provide a heterodyne effect that can boost the differential optical power amplitude of the paired interrogating beams, thereby enhancing the optical measurement sensitivity of the FOG application.

Abstract: An improved-type of interferometric fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) is proposed, which is used for the observation and measurement of the Sagnac effect to determine the angular speed of a rotational movement with enhanced measurement sensitivity and accuracy. The improved FOG is characterized by the combined use of a polarization-maintaining mechanism, a symmetric beam-splitting configuration for the 3×3 directional coupler, a common optical path for the opposing beams, and a pair of photo detectors for the detection of a pair of differential phase signals that indicate the angular speed of the rotational movement. The combined use of these approaches can help significantly eliminate and reduce the common mode phase noises caused by polarization crosstalk to a minimum possible level that has never been achieved by the conventional FOGs, thus significantly enhancing the measurement sensitivity and accuracy to a much higher level.