Simultaneous Suppression of Thermal Phase Noise and Relative Intensity
Noise in a Fiber Optic Gyroscope
Abstract
The short-term sensitivity of a several-kilometers long fiber-optic
gyroscope is limited mainly by thermal phase noise and relative
intensity noise. Increasing the phase modulation frequency decreases the
thermal phase noise but not the relative intensity noise since it
behaves as white noise. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate
that the angular random walk can be effectively decreased by suppressing
relative intensity noise at the modulation frequency and its third-order
harmonic using direct feedback to the drive current of a
superluminescent diode. Our simultaneous suppression of thermal phase
noise and relative intensity noise yields an angular random walk of 15
μdeg/√h and a bias instability of 33 μdeg/h using a fiber coil with a
length of 5km and an effective area of 280m2 for a
measurement time of 40 hours.