Reducing polarization-fluctuation induced drift in resonant fiber optic gyro by using single-polarization fiber

A novel hybrid single-polarization (SP) fiber ring resonator is demonstrated by using a polarization-maintaining coupler formed by splicing a section of SP fiber into the resonator. The SP fiber selectively eliminates the unwanted resonance by introducing high loss for the unwanted eigenstates of polarization in the resonator. The calculated result shows that this hybrid SP resonator is a good candidate for a tactical-grade performance gyro with a high environmental temperature stability. The experiment shows that the desired resonance in the resonator can keep an excellent stability in a wide temperature range, thus the temperature-dependent polarization-fluctuation drift in the resonant fiber optic gyro is sufficiently suppressed. As a result, a random walk coefficient of 0.08 degrees/root h and a typical bias stability below 0.3 degrees/h for an integration time of 300 s have been carried out. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America