Polarization Coupling Analyzer for Interferometric Fiber Optic Gyroscope (IFOG) Coils

The ability to characterize optical fiber coils with long lengths of fiber (at least one kilometer) is crucial for the characterization and testing of interferometric fiber optic gyroscope systems. An important characteristic of the fiber sensing coil which directly impacts system performance parameters such as bias stability is the amplitude and spatial location of spurious polarization cross-couplings. The optical coherence domain polarimeter, an instrument based on white light interferometry, has the ability to quantify distributed polarization coupling in fiber coils, as well as polarization extinction ratio of integrated optical chips and beat length of coherent signals. This instrument is recognized as a key piece of test apparatus in evaluating IFOG components prior to assembIy to screen out sub-standard components, resulting in decreased f this proposed research, therefore, to perform a systematic performance analysis on a Photonencs WIN-P-400 optical coherence domain polarimeter, determine the performance limiting optical, electronic, and/or software subsystems for each critical performance specification, and prescribe hardware modifications to improve them. These modifications will be implemented in Phase II as part of a cooperative effort with Photonetics, Inc., with the resulting high performance OCDP marketed to international IFOG manufacturers. BENEFITS: The commercial and military markets for IFOG Systems are emerging. IFOG technology is currently being implemented as part of the navigation/mapping devices inastalled in luxury Japanese automobiles and has been implemented into an Air Force missile system. Other commercial uses, such as intrusion sensors, rate sensors, and platform stabilizers have appeared in the past several years. Since there exist numerous applications for IFOGs, especially in navigation and alignment systems, many such systems would benefit from the technology developed under this topic.