Measurements of fundamental thermal induced phase fluctuations in the fiber of a Sagnac interferometer

Author

Knudsen, S. ; Tveten, A.B. ; Dandridge, A.

Author_Institution

Div. of Opt. Sci., Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

7

Issue

1

fYear

1995

Firstpage

90

Lastpage

92

Abstract

We demonstrate measurements of fundamental thermal induced phase fluctuations in the fiber-loop of a Sagnac interferometer. Loop lengths of 1.1 and 2.2 km are considered, showing phase noise levels between /spl sim/0.2-1.4 μrad rms//spl radic/(Hz) in the frequency range 1-100 kHz. Good agreement between theory and experiment is demonstrated. We show that the frequency dependent noise floor can have a considerable impact on threshold detection´s for a Sagnac based sensor for detection of reciprocal measurands, as well as on the random walk coefficient in fiber optic gyroscopes.

Keywords

fibre optic sensors; gyroscopes; light interferometers; noise measurement; optical noise; optical variables measurement; phase noise; 1 to 100 kHz; 1.1 km; 2.2 km; Sagnac based sensor; Sagnac interferometer; fiber; fiber optic gyroscopes; fiber-loop; frequency dependent noise floor; fundamental thermal induced phase fluctuations; phase noise levels; random walk coefficient; reciprocal measurands; threshold detection; Fluctuations; Frequency dependence; Frequency measurement; Optical fiber sensors; Optical fiber theory; Optical noise; Optical sensors; Phase measurement; Phase noise; Sagnac interferometers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.363366

Filename

363366