© 2006 OSA/OFS 2006

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Hollow Core Fiber Optic Ring Resonator for Rotation

Sensing
Glen A. Sanders, Lee K. Strandjord and Tiequn Qiu
Honeywell: Strategic Sensors Enterprise Team
21111 N. 19th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85027
Glen.A.Sanders@honeywell.com
Lee.Strandjord@honeywell.com
Tiequn.Qiu@honeywell.com

Abstract: An exciting new fiber optic resonator architecture that addresses performance barriers
of the past is presented for applications in rotation sensing. It uses bandgap fiber. Experimental
results of first resonators showing encouraging performance are presented.
© 2006 Optical Society of America
OCIS Codes: (060.0060) Fiber Optics and Optical Communications; (060.2800) Gyroscopes

1. Introduction

Low drift interferometric fiber optic gyros (IFOGs) have been demonstrated for some time, showing performance
that scales with size and fiber-length for a range of applications. These applications have encompassed tactical-grade
performance (approx. 1 deg/hr), navigation-grade performance (approx. 0.01 deg/hr) and beyond. In fact, bias
stabilities of better than 0.0004 deg/hr have been realized for some of the most precise applications. However, the
IFOGs have several limitations, using long lengths of fiber in coils to achieve precision-grade performance, and
using shorter, but sufficiently costly coils to make them less cost-attractive for low performance applications.
The resonator fiber optic gyro (RFOG) is a related optical approach with the potential for realizing IFOG-like
performance with a coil lengths of up to 100x shorter than those of IFOGs for a given performance class. However,
unlike development of the IFOG, the realization of low-drift behavior comparable to the IFOG has not been reported
for the resonator fiber optic gyro (RFOG)[1]. We shall discuss this performance potential, what has limited RFOG’s
drift rate in the past, and the potential for removing this performance barrier with bandgap fiber in this paper. We
shall also demonstrate the first ring resonators constructed from bandgap fiber, opening an exciting new area in
rotation sensing techniques.

Figure 1. Optical Gyroscopes. Figure 1a) Ring Laser Gyroscope (RLG), 1b) Interferferometer Fiber Optic Gyroscope,
1c) Resonator Fiber Optic Gyroscope

The potential of RFOG is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows the three main types of optical gyroscopes using
the Sagnac Effect; namely the ring laser gyroscope (RLG), the IFOG, and the RFOG. A simplified way of
comparing the ultimate performance potential of each is to look at the relative dependences the fundamental signal
to noise limit for each of the three approaches[2] after taking out the common ones. In the case of the RLG, its
fundamental limit is ultimately based upon phase jitter from spontaneous emission noise (for a non-dithered gyro),
and in the case of the FOGs, on their shot noise limited signal to noise. In this rough comparison the wavelength of
light, and the diameter of the enclosed by the light path are assumed to be equal. In this case, the RLG’s sensitivity
improves with its cavity finesse 1/F (without gain), signifying more sensitivity for light traveling more round-trips
around the closed optical path in this multi-pass device. By contrast, the IFOG is only a single pass device---its
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dependences is as 1/2N (N=number of turns) light only traverses the closed path once equivalent to F =2, but has the
advantage of increased sensitivity provided by making the path extremely long via many turns of optical fiber.
The RFOG has combines the above advantages of the IFOG and RLG, and these advantages are multiplicative,
using fiber turns to increase the length of the closed path, and re-circulating the light as a multi-pass resonant cavity.
This gives a 1/FN dependence. The significance of the above argument is that by wrapping more turns of fiber, the
RFOG may have more sensitivity in the same size as the RLG, or the same sensitivity in a smaller size. In
comparison to the IFOG, the RFOG has the theoretical potential to accomplish the same signal to noise performance
with a coil that is 10x – 100 x shorter, providing a smaller, more affordable instrument. For example, calculations of
the shot noise limit show that with 1-10 m of fiber in a 1 cm diameter, and a finesse of 100, the RFOG has the
potential for better than 0.001 deg/rt-hr angle random walk performance, better than that required for inertial
navigation. This would allow the RFOG to be very significantly smaller and lighter than comparably-performing
RLGs and IFOGs.

2. Hollow Core Resonator Concept

RFOGs were under investigation, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s [3-7], but bias stabilities of 0.01 deg/hr and
beyond, comparable to results for IFOGs (and RLGs) were not reported. For example, Sanders and Strandjord
reported a bias stability of 0.4 deg/hr [8], considerably shy of expectations. Several drift mechanisms were reported
as the barriers to performance improvement, having a common constituent in the RFOG: The propagation of
monochromatic light in a glass medium. This basic architectural choice leads to optical Kerr effect errors due to the
non-linearity of the glass medium, polarization errors due to changes in temperature-dependent stress in the fiber
and potentially stimulated Brillouin scattering, since light is virtually traveling in a vacuum in an RLG, these issues
are not relevant. The IFOG design effectively uses a broadband source to alleviate potential error mechanisms due to
the Kerr Effect and birefringence-drive polarization errors in the media.
The emergence of hollow core fiber [9] has greatly reduced the energy of light propagating in the glass medium,
reportedly to as low as 1%. This remarkable development has prompted us to take a fresh approach to the RFOG
since many of the historical performance barriers in the RFOG should be dramatically reduced. One key advantage
of using hollow core fiber is that it enables the use of free space optics, such as a high reflectivity mirror to
recirculate the light within the fiber ring. This is a consequence of the fact that the fiber index is very close to unity,
and fiber-free space interfaces should have little loss and backscatter. Particularly, the Kerr effect should be reduced
by up to 100x , and polarization errors should be even more dramatically reduced. The reason for the latter result is
that, 1) polarization cross coupling in the resonator input coupler for conventional PM fibers was the dominant
cross-coupling effect and a mirror with virtually no polarization cross-coupling can now be employed, and 2) the
resonances corresponding to the two polarization modes of the ring should no longer drift relative to each other due
to temperature[10], since the hollow core fiber has shape birefringence, not temperature-sensitive stress
birefringence. Sensitivity to the Shupe Effect should also be lower by a factor of approximately 5x, as it is with the
IFOG [11].
The first question of interest was whether one could, in fact, build a low loss resonator using hollow core fiber and
free space optics? Since the 7-cell hollow core fiber have second and third spatial modes, would it be possible to
excite only a single spatial mode, and thus avoid apparent resonance asymmetries from higher order modes? Is the
fiber polarization-retaining to the extent that it possible to excite a single polarization mode, thus avoiding potential
resonance ambiguities and asymmetries?

3. Setup and Results

To answer these important questions we have built and tested a hollow core fiber ring resonator, the first one
reported to our knowledge. A schematic is shown in Figure 2. The resonator is formed by two free-space mirrors,
one for the input light and one for an output tap, of 99% and 98.5% reflectivity, respectively. A 7-cell hollow core
fiber of 0.9 meter length, and loss of <20 dB/km from Crystal-Fibre is used. Lenses of 40x magnification with
antireflection coating are used to couple light into the fiber coil. The laser is a narrow band, tunable, single
frequency laser operating at 1550 nm wavelength. The laser beam is split into two beams, each of which is
polarized, and injected into the clockwise and counterclockwise directions of the resonator. The resonant coil and
the optics are mounted on an optical bench without packaging for rugged environments.
The laser frequency is swept to scan across the resonance line-shapes of the fiber ring resonator The resonance
structure of the hollow core fiber ring resonator is shown in Figure 3. The finesse is approximately 42, which
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corresponds to a round-trip loss of only 7%. This is an exciting result: After taking into account the fiber losses, the
mirror losses and the lens losses, the total round-trip losses that can be attributed to free-space-to-fiber coupling are
only ~3%, showing that sufficiently high finesse resonators, comparable to those of conventional PM fiber
resonators [8], are quite achievable.
From Ein _ CCW
PDCCW
Laser
Waveplate Eout _ CCW
Ein _ CW M1 M2 Eout _ CW

L1 PDCW
L2
Fiber Fiber
Holder Holder

Hollow Core Fiber

Resonator

Polarization
Controllers

Figure 2. Test setup of a hollow core fiber ring resonator consisting of mirrors M1 and M2, lenses L1 and L2, photodetectors PDCW and
PDCCW and hollow core fiber.

The second interesting feature of Figure 3 is that there is only a single resonance peak. That is, we were able to
maintain stable excitation into a single spatial mode in each direction using normal free-space to fiber alignment
techniques. The possible excitation of two or three higher order spatial modes was not a significant challenge,
possibly because of their increased round-trip loss. The third and perhaps the most compelling feature is that we
were able to launch light into a single polarization eigenstate of the resonator, although a polarization controller was
used to modify the state of polarization in the fiber; however, its stability in laboratory conditions qualitatively
indicated a degree polarization holding capability of the fiber.

0.05 0.06
(a) (b)
CW CCW
0.04 0.05

0.04
Signal (arb. unit)

Signal (arb. unit)

0.03
0.03
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0
0

-0.01 -0.01
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002
Time (s) Time (s)

Figure 3. A sweep of the free spectral range (FSR) of ring resonator consisting of free-space optics and hollow core bandgap optical fiber for
clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The FSR is around 400 MHz and the finesse is 42.

One of the most important properties of the fiber, as indicated earlier, was that the temperature dependence of
the birefringence should be roughly 102-103 less sensitive to temperature than that of conventional PM fiber [12].
This is critical since excitation of a resonant polarization state is not entirely avoidable, and in conventional PM
fibers its resonance will drift relative to the resonance of the main peak used to measure rotation [13]. This causes
drift. To verify that this was significantly reduced in bandgap fiber, we purposely changed the input polarization the
input polarization of the ccw beam (using a waveplate, see figure 2) thus exciting the second polarization state of the
resonator in the ccw direction. This causes a second resonance peak to emerge as shown in Figure 4. A 20 cm
section of the fiber was then heated by approximately 10 degrees Celsius. No movement (<±2% of free spectral
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range) of the second peak relative to the first was observed, whereas in standard fiber one would have expected the
peaks to have entirely crossed through each other, i.e., over one wavelength change in the relative optical pathlength
between states. This result shows the potential for stable polarization performance in resonators using hollow core
fiber.

0.05
CCW
0.04

Signal (arb. unit)

0.03

0.02

0.01

-0.01
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002
Time (s)

Figure 4. A sweep of the resonator free spectral range with the input beam polarization state misaligned. The sweep shows the excitation of the
second polarization eigenstate of the resonator.

4. Summary

We have proposed a new RFOG architecture that should greatly reduce, or remove performance barriers of the past.
We have constructed and tested the first (to our knowledge) resonator for rotation sensing using bandgap hollow
core fiber. The results obtained show very low losses for coupling the fiber to free space optics. The resonator had a
finesse of 42, with spatial mode and polarization mode behavior that should prove quite promising for gyro
applications.

5. References
[1] G. A. Sanders, “Critical review of resonator fiber optic gyroscope technology,” Proc. SPIE Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors X, (September
1992, Boston Mass.) Vol. CR44, pp. 133-159.
[2] S. Ezekiel, H.J. Arditty, “Fiber-Optic Rotation Sensors,” 1982 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Fiber-Optic Rotation Sensors and Related
Technologies, 2-26 (1982).
[3] G.A. Sanders, M.G. Prentiss, and S. Ezekiel, “Passive ring resonator method for sensitive inertial rotation measurements in geophysics and
relativity,” Opt. Lett. Vol.6, 569 (1981).
[4] L. Strandjord, G. Sanders, “Passive stabilization of temperature dependent polarization errors of a polarization-rotating resonator fiber optic
gyroscope,” Proc. SPIE Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors XIII, (June 1995, Munich, FRG) Vol.2510, pp. 81-91.
[5] T. Kaiser, D. Cardarelli, and J. Walsh, “Experimental developments in the RFOG,” Proc. SPIE, Fiber Optic and Laser Sensors VIII,
(September 1990, San Jose, Ca.), Vol.1367, pp. 121-126.
[6] K. Iwatsuki, K. Hotate, and M. Higashiguchi, “Eigenstate of polarization in a fiber ring resonator and its effect in an optical passive ring-
resonator gyro,” Appl. Opt., 25(15), pp. 2606-2612 (1986).
[7] K. Iwatsuki, K. Hotate, and M. Higashiguchi, “Effect of Rayleigh backscattering in an optical passive resonator gyro,” Applied Optics, 23(21)
pp. 3916-3924 (1984).
[8] L.K. Strandjord, G.A. Sanders, “Resonator fiber optic gyro employing a polarization-rotating resonator,” Proc. SPIE Vol.1585, Fiber Optic
Gyros: 15th Anniversary Conference, 1991, pp. 163-172.
[9] R.F. Cregan, B.J. Magan, J.C. Knight, T.A. Birks, P.St.J. Russell, P.J. Robert and D.C. Allan, “Single-mode photonic band gap guidance in
air,” Science 285, pp. 1537-1539 (1999).
[10] V. Dangui, H.K. Kim, M.J.F. Digonnet, and G.S. Kino, “Phase sensitivity to temperature of the fundamental mode in air-guiding photonic-
bandgap fibers,” Opt. Express, Vol. 13, No.18, pp. 6669 (2005).
[11] H.K Kim, V. Dangui, M. Digonnet, G. Kino, “Fiber-optic gyroscope using an air-core photonic-bandgap fiber” Proceedings of the OFS-17,
May 23-37, 2005, pp. 198.
[12] M. Wegmuller, M. Legre, N. Gisin, J.R. Folkenberg, K.P. Hansen, T.P. Hansen, C. Jakobsen, J. Broeng, “Detailed polarization properties
comparison for three completely different species og highly birefringent fibers,”
[13] G.A. Sanders, N. Demma, G.F. Rouse, and R.B. Smith, “Evaluation of polarization maintaining fiber resonator for rotation sensing
applications,” Optical Fiber Sensor, 1988 Technical Digest Series, Vol.2 (Optical Society of America, Washington D.C.) pp. 409-412.