Optical Sagnac Research Articles

Nonreciprocal macroscopic tripartite entanglement in atom-optomagnomechanical system

We investigate how to generate the nonreciprocal macroscopic tripartite entanglement among the atomic ensemble, ferrimagnetic magnon and mechanical oscillator in a hybrid atom-optomagnomechanical system, where an ensemble of two-level atoms and a yttrium iron garnet micro-bridge supporting the magnon and mechanical modes are placed in a spinning optical resonator driven by a laser field. The phonon being the quantum of the mechanical mode interacts with the magnon and the optical photon via magnetostriction and radiation pressure, respectively, and meanwhile the photon couples to the atomic ensemble. The results show that not only all bipartite entanglements but also the genuine tripartite entanglement among the atomic ensemble, magnon and phonon could be generated at the steady state. Moreover, the nonreciprocity of atom-magnon-phonon entanglement can be obtained with the aid of the optical Sagnac effect by spinning the resonator, in which the entanglement is present in a chosen driving direction but disappears in the other direction. The nonreciprocal macroscopic tripartite entanglement is robust against temperature and could be flexibly controlled by choosing the system parameters. Our work enriches the study of macroscopic multipartite quantum states, which may have potential applications in the development of quantum information storage and the construction of multi-node chiral quantum network.

Optimizing the sensitivity of a fiber optic-based Sagnac interferometer for high-performance human voice sensing

This article presents a theoretical and experimental study aimed at enhancing the sensitivity of the fiber optic Sagnac interferometer, specifically designed for efficient detection of human voice signals. The study focuses on optimizing various factors that influence the sensitivity, including the frequency response of the Sagnac interferometer, the structure of the sensing fiber, and the sensor noise. Several fiber sensing structures were investigated both theoretically and experimentally within this framework to enable high-performance human voice sensing. The measurement results validate the theoretical findings, particularly highlighting the directional sensitivity influenced by the geometry of the sensing fiber structure. Notably, we succeeded in recording and intelligible listening to a human conversation at a distance of 5 m using a multi-layer fiber coil with a total length of 50 m. The measured Minimum Detectable Pressure (MDP) is approximately 337 μPa/Hz1/2 at 1 kHz, which can be reduced by increasing the fiber length.

Non-Contact Shear Wave Generation and Detection Using High Frequency Air-Coupled Focused Transducer and Fiber Optic Based Sagnac Interferometer for Mechanical Characterization

In shear wave-based material mechanical characterization, the transmit/receiver transducer is generally in contact with the material through a coupling medium. In many applications, especially in biological tissue-related characterization, the application of the coupling medium and the contact method are not ideal, sometimes even unacceptable, due to contamination or stress response concerns. To avoid contact, we developed a 1 MHz air-coupled focused PZT transducer as a moderate pressure generator that could induce a shear wave in soft material and a fiber optic-based Sagnac system for the detection of the propagating shear wave. A calibration indicated that the fabricated air-coupled focused PZT transducer could generate pressure above 1 KPa within its focal range. This pressure is three to five times as much as the pressure generated by a 1 MHz air-coupled transducer currently available on the market. The integrated system was demonstrated through shear wave generation by the fabricated air-coupled PZT transducer and shear wave detection by the fiber optic Sagnac system in a nylon membrane. The results demonstrated the capability of the integrated system in non-contact material mechanical characterization, such as in material modulus measurement.

Nonreciprocal optical-microwave entanglement in a spinning magnetic resonator.

We propose a nonreciprocal optical-microwave entanglement in a hybrid system composed of a spinning magnetic resonator and a microwave resonator. The optical Sagnac effect caused by the spinning of the magnetic resonator leads to a significant difference in the quantum entanglement for driving the magnetic resonator from opposite directions, which results in the nonreciprocal optical-microwave entanglement. Remarkably, the nonreciprocal optical-microwave entanglement determined by the spinning speed, driving direction, and driving frequency has a high tunability, so it can be turned on or off on demand. Our work opens up a new, to the best of our knowledge, route to achieve nonreciprocal entanglement between microwave and optical domains, which may have potential applications in chiral quantum networking.

A highly sensitive optical fiber temperature sensor based on the enhanced Vernier effect

A highly sensitive optical fiber temperature sensor based on enhanced Vernier effect is proposed in this paper. The sensor is a cascaded structure which is composed of fiber optic Sagnac interferometer (FSI) and intermodal Mach–Zehnder interferometer (IMZI). Because the interference fringes of the IMZI and the FSI shift to opposite directions as ambient temperature varies, the enhanced Vernier effect is obtained. Compared to the temperature sensor based on the traditional Vernier effect, the proposed sensor realizes the high sensitivity temperature measurement and doesn’t need any special sensitizing materials, complicated manufacture process or a reference interferometer which need to be desensitized. Experimental results show that the sensitivity of the sensor is 20.86 nm/°C. A good linear responses can be obtained in temperature measurement range from 25 °C to 33 °C.

All-POF coupling ratio-imbalanced Sagnac interferometer as a refractive index sensor.

A polymer optical Sagnac interferometer is proposed as a compact and low-cost refractive index sensor for the first time to our best knowledge. The Sagnac interferometer is fabricated by only one piece of fiber to facilitate its fabrication and to avoid losses due to misalignment or fusion. The coupler was developed based on chemical and twisting techniques of ∼5cm of fiber. We modified the coupling ratio by varying the refractive index of media surrounding the coupler and consequently modified the transmission. For several values of mass percent concentration of sugar solutions surrounding the coupler, we found that transmittance decreases as the mass concentration increases. However, the decay is faster for the low concentration, while the decay is slower for higher concentrations. Two sets of experiments were carried out, at high (≥ 1 gm/100 ml) and low (<1gm/100ml) mass concentration of sugar solutions. The calibration of the sensor was done at 733 nm, where the response of the interferometer displays larger transmission variations for different solutions. The refractive index estimation was possible by correlation of the transmittance function (calculated by fitting the experimental data) with a linear refractive index model. The estimated resolution of the system is 0.057 weight percent of sugar solution, determined by the noise of the system.

Rotation Active Sensors Based on Ultrafast Fibre Lasers.

Gyroscopes merit an undeniable role in inertial navigation systems, geodesy and seismology. By employing the optical Sagnac effect, ring laser gyroscopes provide exceptionally accurate measurements of even ultraslow angular velocity with a resolution up to 10 rad/s. With the recent advancement of ultrafast fibre lasers and, particularly, enabling effective bidirectional generation, their applications have been expanded to the areas of dual-comb spectroscopy and gyroscopy. Exceptional compactness, maintenance-free operation and rather low cost make ultrafast fibre lasers attractive for sensing applications. Remarkably, laser gyroscope operation in the ultrashort pulse generation regime presents a promising approach for eliminating sensing limitations caused by the synchronisation of counter-propagating channels, the most critical of which is frequency lock-in. In this work, we overview the fundamentals of gyroscopic sensing and ultrafast fibre lasers to bridge the gap between tools development and their real-world applications. This article provides a historical outline, highlights the most recent advancements and discusses perspectives for the expanding field of ultrafast fibre laser gyroscopes. We acknowledge the bottlenecks and deficiencies of the presented ultrafast laser gyroscope concepts due to intrinsic physical effects or currently available measurement methodology. Finally, the current work outlines solutions for further ultrafast laser technology development to translate to future commercial gyroscopes.

Artificial Coherent States of Light by Multiphoton Interference in a Single-Photon Stream.

Coherent optical states consist of a quantum superposition of different photon number (Fock) states, but because they do not form an orthogonal basis, no photon number states can be obtained from it by linear optics. Here we demonstrate the reverse, by manipulating a random continuous single-photon stream using quantum interference in an optical Sagnac loop, we create engineered quantum states of light with tunable photon statistics, including approximate weak coherent states. We demonstrate this experimentally using a true single-photon stream produced by a semiconductor quantum dot in an optical microcavity, and show that we can obtain light with g^{(2)}(0)→1 in agreement with our theory, which can only be explained by quantum interference of at least 3 photons. The produced artificial light states are, however, much more complex than coherent states, containing quantum entanglement of photons, making them a resource for multiphoton entanglement.

Atom-Light Hybrid Quantum Gyroscope

A new type of atom-light hybrid quantum gyroscope (ALHQG) is proposed due to its high rotation sensitivity. It consists of an optical Sagnac loop to couple rotation rate and an atomic ensemble as quantum beam splitter/recombiner (QBS/C) based on atomic Raman amplification process to realize the splitting and recombination of the optical wave and the atomic spin wave. The rotation sensitivity can be enhanced by the quantum correlation between Sagnac loop and QBS/C. The optimal working condition is investigated to achieve the best sensitivity. The numerical results show that the rotation sensitivity can beat the standard quantum limit (SQL) in ideal condition. Even in the presence of the attenuation under practical condition, the best sensitivity of the ALHQG can still beat the SQL and is better than that of a fiber optic gyroscope (FOG). Such an ALHQG could be practically applied for modern inertial navigation system.

Detection of disbonds in adhesively bonded aluminum plates using laser-generated shear acoustic waves

Adhesively bonded metals are increasingly used in many industries. Inspecting these parts remains challenging for modern non-destructive testing techniques. Laser ultrasound (LU) has shown great potential in high-resolution imaging of carbon-reinforced composites. For metals, excitation of longitudinal waves is inefficient without surface ablation. However, shear waves can be efficiently generated in the thermo-elastic regime and used to image defects in metallic structures. Here we present a compact LU system consisting of a high repetition rate diode-pumped laser to excite shear waves and noncontact detection with a highly sensitive fiber optic Sagnac interferometer to inspect adhesively bonded aluminum plates. Multiphysics finite difference simulations are performed to optimize the measurement configuration. Damage detection is performed for a structure consisting of three aluminum plates bonded with an epoxy film. Defects are simulated by a thin Teflon film. It is shown that the proposed technique can efficiently localize defects in both adhesion layers.

Nonreciprocal Mechanical Squeezing in a Spinning Optomechanical System

AbstractA scheme for nonreciprocal mechanical squeezing (NMS) based on the three‐mode optomechanical interaction is proposed. In this scheme, a mechanical mode couples to a spinning whispering‐gallery‐cavity (WGC) mode and to an optical mode. An external laser is coupled into and thus drives the WGC via a waveguide. Mechanical squeezing results from the joint effect of the mechanical intrinsic nonlinearity and the quadratic optomechanical coupling, which, in the presence of strong thermal noise, is still considerable, while the nonreciprocity originates from the optical Sagnac effect. There are two NMS areas in the parametric space, one works for the laser driving from the left of the waveguide and another, from the right. For a given spinning speed of the WGC, the squeezing values in these two areas are equal if the corresponding detunings of the WGC differ from each other by two‐times of the Sagnac–Fizeau shift. At the red‐detuning resonance, the analytical results for the mechanical squeezing and cooling are obtained. The NMS scheme is robust to the thermal noise of the mechanical environment.

Sagnac Gyroscopes and the GINGER Project

Large frame optical Sagnac gyroscopes, more commonly called ring laser gyroscopes, are considered the only device able to provide fast and very high sensitivity measurement of the length of the day (LOD), and of the Earth rotation axis variations. Several large frame Sagnac gyros are presently operative with high duty cycle and sensitivity well below fractions of nrad/s in 1 second measurement. At present other inertial angular rotation sensors are not competitive with ring laser gyroscopes. The feasibility depends on the so called hetero-lithic ring lasers. The present status of art is reported, and the feasibility of the main goals for geodesy discussed.

The improved denoising algorithm of acoustic sensor based on linear optical fiber Sagnac interferometer

Abstract This paper is devoted to the study of an acoustic sensor system based on linear fiber optic Sagnac interferometer. An improved threshold denoising algorithm combined with the wavelet theory is proposed. Furthermore, a hybrid scheme based on the improved algorithm with bandpass filter is explored, and experimental verification of theoretical investigation is accomplished as well. Taking the measured speech signals as examples, the Allan variance of the signals can be reduced, while the class spacing criterion can be increased. It is of great significance for promoting the application of the fiber optic acoustic sensor system.

Quantum Rotation Sensing with Dual Sagnac Interferometers in an Atom-Optical Waveguide

We describe a Sagnac interferometer suitable for rotation sensing, implemented using an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a harmonic magnetic trap. The atom wave packets are split and recombined by standing-wave Bragg lasers, and the trapping potential steers the packets along circular trajectories with a radius of 0.2mm. Two conjugate interferometers are implemented simultaneously to provide common-mode rejection of noise and to isolate the rotation signal. With interference visibilities of about 50%, we achieve a rotation sensitivity comparable to Earth's rate in about 10min of operation. Gyroscope operation was demonstrated by rotating the optical table on which the experiment was performed.

Real-time observation of the optical Sagnac effect in ultrafast bidirectional fibre lasers

Active ring laser gyroscopes (RLG) operating on the principle of the optical Sagnac effect are preferred instruments for a range of applications, such as inertial guidance systems, seismology, and geodesy, that require both high bias stability and high angular velocity resolutions. Operating at such accuracy levels demands special precautions like dithering or multi-mode operation to eliminate frequency lock-in or similar effects introduced due to synchronisation of counter-propagating channels. Recently proposed bidirectional ultrafast fibre lasers can circumvent the limitations of continuous wave RLGs. However, their performance is limited due to the nature of the highly-averaged interrogation of the Sagnac effect. In general, the performance of current optical gyroscopes relies on the available measurement methods used for extracting the signal. Here, by changing the paradigm of traditional measurement and applying spatio-temporal intensity processing, we demonstrate that the bidirectional ultrafast laser can be transformed to an ultrafast gyroscope with acquisition rates of the order of the laser repetition rate, making them at least two orders of magnitude faster than commercially deployed versions. We also show the proof-of-principle for dead-band-free round trip time-resolved spectral domain measurements using the Dispersive Fourier Transform, further enhancing the gyroscopic sensitivity. Our results reveal the high potential of application of novel methods of signal measurements in mid-sized ultrafast fibre laser gyroscopes to achieve performances that are currently available only with large-scale RLGs.

Optical nonreciprocity and slow light in coupled spinning optomechanical resonators.

We study the optical transmission characteristics of coupled spinning optomechanical resonators with pump-probe driven lasers. Under the steady-state conditions, we focus on how changing the optical Sagnac effect due to same or opposite spinning directions of the resonators can give rise to non-reciprocal and delayed probe light transmission. We find that coupled resonators can exhibit distinct transmission features, can generate negative group delays (slow as well as fast light) and offer additional control of the probe light transmission as compared to the case of a single spinning resonator. Our results can be useful in achieving chiral light propagation in quantum communication technologies without using traditional magneto-optical means.

Influence of Initial Phase Modulation on the Sensitivity of the Optical Fiber Sagnac Acoustic Emission Sensor

Improving the phase sensitivity of the optical fiber Sagnac sensor is very important for accurately detecting weak signals of acoustic emission. Theoretical analysis shows that the initial phase of the sensor is π under ideal conditions, and the maximum phase sensitivity is obtained when the bias phase is π/2. In this work, an experimental system was built with an aluminum alloy plate as the experimental object. The initial phase of the sensor was modulated by a Y-branch waveguide, and the fitting curve of the experimental data was in good agreement with the curve of the numerical simulation. Moreover, our experiments show there was a single value for the bias phase of π/2, which significantly deviated from the theoretical value. The results show that the greatest phase sensitivity of the sensor not only could be increased by nearly nine times through modulating the initial phase, but also could suppress the harmonic interferences in the sensing system. This study can provide a useful reference for improving the phase sensitivity of the optical fiber Sagnac AE sensor in practical applications.

Nonreciprocal Phonon Laser

We propose nonreciprocal phonon lasing in a coupled cavity system composed of an optomechanical and a spinning resonator. We show that the optical Sagnac effect leads to significant modifications in both the mechanical gain and the power threshold for phonon lasing. More importantly, the phonon lasing in this system is unidirectional, that is the phonon lasing takes place when the coupled system is driven in one direction but not the other. Our work establishes the potential of spinning optomechanical devices for low-power mechanical isolation and unidirectional amplification. This provides a new route, well within the reach of current experimental abilities, to operate cavity optomechanics devices for such a wide range of applications as directional phonon switches, invisible sound sensing, and topological or chiral acoustics.

保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环的光学游标效应及温度传感器

保偏光纤转轴熔接Sagnac干涉环的光学游标效应及温度传感器

Multi-resolution intrusion localization algorithm through cepstrum in distributed fiber optic Sagnac interferometer

Distributed fiber optic sensors are studied extensively, for monitoring abnormal events in continuous space, due to the advantages of immunity to electrical interference, non-conductivity and light weight. Moreover, the position of abnormal events, such as intrusions, could be determined directly without additional measurements. Among the various techniques, Sagnac interferometers prove to be promising for providing high sensitivity and large dynamic range in detecting intrusions. Two interference light beams are used which are naturally of equal optical path length in static status. When an intrusion occurs along the sensing fiber, the two light beams arrive at the intrusion position in different time and thus cause different phase changes induced by the intrusion. Analysis of the phase difference signal can predict the intrusion position, as well as the existence of the intrusion. As a Faraday rotator mirror (FRM) connected in the far-end of sensing fiber, both beams travel twice to the intrusion position after being reflected by the FRM. The propagation time interval T between the two interactions corresponds to the distance between the intrusion position and the far-end of sensing fiber Lx, which is further extracted as the localization of intrusion. Previously, the auto-correlation algorithm deals with the phase difference signal in the time domain and the null-frequency algorithm is used in frequency domain to calculate the distance. However the poor localization performance usually can not meet the requirement in high-quality monitoring applications. To determine the position of an intrusion effectively and accurately, the localization algorithm which deals with the phase difference signal in cepstrum domain is proposed in this article. Inspired by the research on the pitch examination we first introduce the algorithm for intrusion localization. Through theoretical analysis, the phase difference signal can be regarded as the convolution of the original waveform of intrusion and the T-related transform function. By applying the fast Fourier transform to the logarithmic spectrum, the phase difference signal is changed into the cepstrum domain, where the original waveform of intrusion and the transform function behave differently and are separated. The propagation time interval T, as well as the distance Lx, can be directly acquired from the peak produced by the transform function. In addition, to overcome the roughness in localization resolution brought by down-sampling of the phase difference signal, the decimator factor is scanned from 30 to 50 for multi-resolution localization at an original sampling rate 4 million/s-1. Besides the basic peak, high order peaks also emerge in the cepstrum in high signal-noise-ratio condition, which can also be used for localization. Since the localizations from different decimator factor and different peaks spread around the actual distance, an average of all reasonable localizations is calculated as the ultimate localization result for the intrusion. Firstly in experiments, intrusions occurring at a position 40.498 km are produced for the verification of the algorithm. The localizations are 40.489, 40.515 and 40.487 km, with localization errors as small as 9, 17 and 11 m respectively. Intrusions at different positions are tested and also correctly localized. For comparison, the standard deviations of localization error are respectively 695 m and 118 m for the auto-correlation algorithm and the null frequency algorithm, which are 58 times and 10 times of the result 12 m, which is obtained by the proposed cepstrum algorithm. The performance suggests promise to achieve better localization in practical applications.