Performance comparison of slow‐light coupled‐resonator optical gyroscopes

Abstract

AbstractWe investigate the connection between group velocity and rotation sensitivity in a number of resonant gyroscope designs. Two key comparisons are made. First, we compare two conventional sensors, namely a resonant fiber optic gyroscope (RFOG) and an interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (FOG). Second, we compare the RFOG to several recently proposed coupled‐resonator optical waveguide (CROW) gyroscopes. We show that the relationship between loss and maximum rotation sensitivity is the same for both conventional and CROW gyroscopes. Thus, coupling multiple resonators together cannot enhance rotation sensitivity. While CROW gyroscopes offer the potential for large group indices, this increase of group index does not provide a corresponding increase in the maximum sensitivity to rotation. For a given footprint and a given total loss, the highest sensitivity is shown to be achieved either in a conventional RFOG utilizing a single resonator, or a conventional FOG.