Experimental investigation of Sagnac beat signals using semiconductor fiber-optic ring laser gyroscope (S-FOG) based on semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)

Abstract

We are conducting research to confirm the performance of a semiconductor fiber-optic ring laser gyroscope (S-FOG) featuring a semiconductor in its laser cavity. This S-FOG consists of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) as a gain medium, a polarization-maintaining fiber to make a ring cavity, and a directional coupler to take part of the optical power out of the cavity. One of the advantages of the S-FOG is the adaptability of the laser cavity, which allows us to examine many cases of S-FOG applications easily. In the first case, we observed that the S-FOG generated Sagnac beat signals whose peak frequency was proportional to the rotation rate when it rotated. In the second case, we changed the area surrounded by the ring cavity (the fiber) and its perimeter and maintained a near-fixed oscillation wavelength of the ring laser. In this case, all of our experimental results were in good agreement with theoretical calculations, within a few percent. In the third case, we changed the oscillation wavelength and fixed the shape of the ring cavity. In this case, our results were also in good agreement with theoretical calculations. In the fourth case, we examined the Sagnac beat spectrum generated by the S-FOG in detail. The linewidth of the Sagnac beat spectrum increases as the area bounded by the optical path in the ring cavity becomes smaller, or as the length of the cavity becomes shorter. Our experimental results show that the S-FOG works as a gyro and that there exists practical potential for a semiconductor ring laser gyro.