Abstract

In research and development of passive interferometer-type fiber-optic gyroscopes (FOG) three steps towards production status can be distinguished. At first, analysis of the basic principles of Sagnac-interferometers was done with respect to the minimum detectable phase shift. The results were quantities like noise-equivalent rotation rate, shot noise limit, bias and bias instabilities, and were summarized in the well known minimum configuration of a FOG /1/. The next step was the approach to an unambiguous readout of the rotation-induced phase difference resulting in various modulation and signal processing schemes /2-5/.

© 1986 Optical Society of America