No abstract

No abstract

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 murad/ radicalHz. When the sensing fiber is replaced with a conventional fiber, this figure drops to 12 murad/ radicalHz. 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 (approximately 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.

We present a new optical fiber sensor interrogator specifically designed for an embedded instrumentation system. The proposed system consists of a super luminescent diode as a broadband source, a high speed tunable micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) filter, photodetector, and an integrated microprocessor for data aggregation, processing, and communication. The entire system is integrated together in a compact package to create a fiber "smart" sensor. The system is capable of interrogating a variety of multiplexed fiber sensors, processing the data, and communicating the results digitally. As an example, the system has been calibrated with an array of fiber Bragg grating sensors.

No abstract