Sensitivity enhancement through RIN suppression in dual-polarization fiber optic gyroscopes for rotational seismology

Portable sensors with a sufficiently high sensitivity in detecting small rotational motions have attracted significant attention in the field of rotational seismology. In this study, we propose and demonstrate a dual-polarization fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) with a portable-sized fiber coil. Excess relative intensity noise (RIN) is effectively compensated for owing to the opposite parities and strong correlation of the two orthogonal polarized light, whereas other noises including coherent phase noise and thermal phase noise have also been handled well. In a test on detecting the rotation rate of the Earth, an enhanced sensitivity of 20 nrad/s/root Hz over a frequency range of 0.01 Hz to 30 Hz was demonstrated using the proposed design with an enclosed area of only 68 m(2). (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement