Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope Technologies

Interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes (IFOGs) exploit the Sagnac effect to measure rotation with extreme precision. Light from a coherent source is split into counter-propagating beams within a coil of optical fibre; any rotation of the coil induces a phase shift between the two beams, which is detected through interference. Advances in coil design, modulation schemes and signal processing have steadily improved sensitivity, bias stability and noise performance, enabling IFOGs to achieve navigation-grade performance without moving parts. Thermal and polarization-related disturbances remain key challenges, addressed through coil geometry optimisation, novel materials and compensation algorithms. IFOGs have found widespread application in inertial navigation systems for aerospace, autonomous vehicles and seismic monitoring, where their robustness, long-term stability and absence of mechanical wear offer clear advantages over traditional gyroscopes.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have introduced a method to eliminate thermal-induced rate errors due to the Shupe effect without imposing strict winding symmetry on the fibre coil. By analysing the thermal response of various coil geometries and implementing an innovative compensation technique, researchers demonstrated a reduction of rate error to within ±0.05°/h across rapid temperature changes. This advance simplifies coil manufacturing and enhances IFOG performance under real-world thermal fluctuations, paving the way for more compact and cost-effective devices.

Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope Technologies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in interferometric fiber optic gyroscope technologies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Sagnac effect: A phase shift between counter-propagating light beams in a rotating frame, proportional to the rotation rate.

Bias instability: The long-term drift of the zero-rate output of a gyroscope under constant conditions.

Angular random walk: A measure of noise in the gyroscope output, indicating the random fluctuation of measured angle over time.

Shupe effect: Thermal-induced non-reciprocal phase error in a fibre coil caused by temperature gradients during rotation.

Modulation scheme: The method by which phase bias is introduced (for example sinusoidal, square-wave or multi-harmonic) to extract rotation information.

References

1. A novel method to eliminate the symmetry dependence of fiber coils for shupe mitigation. Scientific Reports (2024).
2. Multi-Harmonic Modulation in a Fiber-Optic Gyroscope. Sensors (2023).
3. Sensitivity enhancement through RIN suppression in dual-polarization fiber optic gyroscopes for rotational seismology.. Optics Express (2020).