Effect of reflections on the drift characteristics of a fiber-optic passive ring-resonator gyroscope

The effects of reflections on the drift characteristics of a fiber-optic passive ring-resonator gyroscope are shown both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the reflected light generated at the fiber ends causes nonreciprocal deformations on the resonant characteristics of a fiber-optic ring resonator and results in a drift on the gyro output. However, a rotation-detection sensitivity as high as 3*10/sup -5/ rad/s ( tau =30 s) was obtained by reducing the effects of the reflected light with an optical phase modulator.