Backscatter and the resonant fiber-optic gyro scale factor

The authors address theoretically the effects of singly and doubly backscattered light on the resonant-ring fiber-optic gyro scale factor. It is found that the doubly backscattered light, interfering with the forward traveling wave, contributes significantly to the rotation sensitivity nonlinearity. Neither the suppressed-carrier method nor the frequency-shift method removes this effect. Consequently, in a precision gyro this double backscatter effect may be a major source of the scale factor nonlinearity