Bias error caused by broad-spectrum source and birefringence effect in fiber optical gyroscope

Abstract

To analyze the bias error in the optical path of closed-loop polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber optical gyroscope (FOG), the interference signal term carrying only Sagnac phase shift in phase is divided into two types: one generated by interference between main wave-trains in the clock-wise (CW) direction and counter clock-wise (CCW) direction, and the other one generated by interference between secondary wave-trains in the CW and CCW direction. The residual term is discovered in the second kind, which is caused by synthetic effect of broad-spectrum source and birefringence effect in a FOG with the existence of crossovers. The main influencing factors and the effect on FOG performance of the bias error generated by the residual term is analyzed, and its suppression measures are promoted. Simulation result demonstrates that the bias error can be suppressed from about 0.02°/h to less than 2×10 −4°/h at room temperature and its peak to peak value of variation with temperature can be suppressed to less than 4×10 −4°/h, through matching birefringent fiber length and increasing the delay between modes of light source, which is small enough to meet the requirement of FOG with high performance.