Measurement of reduced backscattering noise in laser-driven fiber optic gyroscopes

We report what we believe to be the first demonstration of a laser-driven fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) built with an air-core fiber. Its phase noise is measured to be 130 μrad/√Hz. When the sensing fiber is replaced with a conventional fiber, this figure drops to 12 μrad/√Hz. Comparison between these values suggests that the air-core fiber gyro is most likely not limited solely by backscattering noise but by reflections at the solid-core/air-core interface. By minimizing additional noise sources and reducing the air-core fiber loss to its theoretical limit (~0.1 dB/km), we predict that the backscattering noise of the laser-driven air-core FOG will drop below the level of current FOGs. Compared with commercial FOGs, this FOG will exhibit a lower noise, improved thermal and mean-wavelength stability, and reduced magnetic-field sensitivity.