Performance of resonator fiber optic gyroscope using external-cavity laser stabilization and optical filtering

A bench-top resonator fiber optic gyroscope (RFOG) was assembled and tested, showing encouraging progress toward navigation grade performance. The gyro employed a fiber length of 19 meters of polarizing fiber for the sensing coil which was wound on an 11.5 cm diameter PZT cylinder. A bias stability of approximately 0.1 deg/hr was observed over a 2 hour timeframe, which is the best bias stability reported to date in an RFOG to our knowledge. Special care was taken to minimize laser phase noise, including stabilization to an optical cavity which was also used for optical filtering, giving angle random walk (ARW) values in the range of 0.008 deg/rt-hr. The ARW performance and bias stability are within 2x and 10x, respectively, of many civil inertial navigation grade requirements.