Abstract

Optical fibers are of great potential importance for sensor systems, because they are environmentally sensitive and because they can be used in interferometers for measurement of very small phase shifts. Fiber gyroscopes, like their predecessors the ring laser gyros, are based on the Sagnac effect,^1,2 whereby light traveling around a closed path experiences a phase shift proportional to the rotation rate in inertial space. The detected phase shift represents an optical path difference that may be less than one thousandth of an angstrom in length.

© 1982 Optical Society of America