Widely tunable compact erbium-doped fiber ring laser for fiber-optic sensing applications

A compact erbium-doped ring-shaped fiber laser suitable for fiber-optic sensing applications has been developed. The fiber laser utilized a tunable fiber Fabry–Perot filter as the tuning element and had a moderate milli-Watt level power output over almost the whole tuning range from 1530 to 1595 nm with a power fluctuation of 0.15 dB. High repetition rate scanning of laser operation over the whole tuning range was achieved at rates of up to 200 Hz. Moreover, the performance of the ring-shaped fiber laser configured with a high-concentration erbium-doped fiber was investigated for its larger wavelength tunability of over 100 nm. Output power characteristics of this ring-shaped fiber laser were also investigated when it worked in a scanning mode. A distorted power wavelength dependence, as well as some pulsing phenomenon were observed in scanning mode.     

单轴旋转惯导系统轴向陀螺漂移预测方法

轴向陀螺漂移是影响单轴旋转惯导系统导航精度的主要因素。对于轴向陀螺漂移的预测,提出了一种基于支持向量机的算法。利用初始对准12 h内系统纬度误差和温度变化量作为训练数据,构造了以多项式、径向基、小波函数为核函数的支持向量机、最小二乘支持向量机、遗忘因子最小二乘支持向量机,对比了它们用于轴向陀螺漂移预测的泛化性能。试验结果表明:遗忘因子最小二乘支持向量机可有效地用于轴向陀螺漂移预测,具有很高的预测精度,极大地提高了单轴旋转激光陀螺惯导系统的导航精度。     

Towards a solid-state ring laser gyroscope

In this paper, we report our recent progress towards a solid-state ring laser gyroscope (RLG), where mode competition is circumvented by active control of differential losses, and nonlinear effects are mitigated by longitudinal vibration of the gain medium. The resulting dynamics is significantly different from that of a classical helium–neon RLG, owing in particular to parametric resonances that occur when the Sagnac frequency is an integer multiple of the crystal vibration frequency. We describe the main experimental and theoretical results obtained so far, and the prospects of practical applications in the near future.     

单轴旋转惯导系统轴向陀螺漂移预测方法

轴向陀螺漂移是影响单轴旋转惯导系统导航精度的主要因素。对于轴向陀螺漂移的预测,提出了一种基于支持向量机的算法。利用初始对准12 h内系统纬度误差和温度变化量作为训练数据,构造了以多项式、径向基、小波函数为核函数的支持向量机、最小二乘支持向量机、遗忘因子最小二乘支持向量机,对比了它们用于轴向陀螺漂移预测的泛化性能。试验结果表明：遗忘因子最小二乘支持向量机可有效地用于轴向陀螺漂移预测,具有很高的预测精度,极大地提高了单轴旋转激光陀螺惯导系统的导航精度。     

激光陀螺中背向散射的研究

为了研究谐振腔形状变化对激光陀螺中背向散射的影响,基于矢量叠加理论,分析了激光陀螺背向散射源及其对总的背向散射的影响.根据背向散射对顺逆时针光的耦合作用,推导出了总的背向散射系数与顺逆时针旋转光光强的关系式.基于这一关系,设计实验,通过施加电压使谐振腔反射镜到不同位置来改变光腔形状变化,同时测量光强交流量的振幅,得到了总的背向散射系数的变化曲线.通过与仿真结果对比,验证了背向散射的矢量叠加理论.     

Proposal of a semiconductor ring laser gyroscope

We proposed a novel optical inertial rotation sensor using a semiconductor ring laser (SRL). The frequency difference between the two counter propagating oscillation frequencies was automatically generated in a mechanically rotated SRL, which consisted of a pig-tailed laser diode amplifier module. And the Sagnac frequency shift could be detected at the first time as a beat note by the terminal voltage change of the SRL without branching the circulating optical power. These experimental results verify that an SRL operates as an optical inertial rotation sensor based on the Sagnac effect.     

An argon ion ring laser as a gyroscope

As a prototype gyroscope for a precision measurement of the Earth's rotation _E, we set up an argon ion ring laser with an area of 1.4 m². Different cavity geometries were tested in order to achieve a cancellation of the effect of the plasma flow. In a set-up with two laser tubes of the same type facing towards opposite directions, a stability of the beat frequency of 2–3 _E was measured. In a configuration with a double transition of the laser beam through the tube, the lock-in threshold was too high for the Earth's rotation to be measured, however, no effect of the plasma flow was observed.     

Study of a carbon dioxide ring laser gyroscope

We have experimentally investigated a basic ring laser gyroscope (RLG) with carbon dioxide gain, and studied the prospects of developing a practical CO₂ RLG. Rotation sensing was demonstrated on a number of transitions in the 9.4 m and 10.4 m vibration-rotation bands. Gyro response is discussed with regard to lock-in, bias, homogeneous broadening effects, and high power operation. We show that such a system may offer important advantages over standard helium-neon RLGs, including reduced quantum limit and backscattering. The prospects and possible approaches for developing a practical high power CO₂ RLG are discussed, and a method of eliminating cross-saturation at high pressure is proposed and analyzed.     

Wide-band tunable passively Q-switched all-fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation technique

A wide-band tunable passively Q-switched all-fiber ring laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technique is demonstrated. The NPR-induced intensity-dependent loss effect acts as an artificial saturable absorber, which was used to achieve the Q-switched operation with a low pump threshold of about 25 mW. Taking advantage of the intracavity birefringence-induced spectral filtering effect, the central wavelength of Q-switched pulse can be continuously tuned from 1543.4 to 1592.4 nm by simply rotating the PCs.     

Investigation on the temperature compensating model for ring laser gyroscope

Thermal effects impose the greatest limit on the precision of a ring laser gyro (RLG). Selections of temperature sensing points were comparatively discussed based on large numbers of experimental data to improve its precision, and the optimum combination was selected to establish a practicalcompensating model. The model is applied to new experimental data under the given and varied temperatures. Results show that the bias trend changing with the temperature is basically eliminated and the bias stability is enhanced significantly.     

A 1.82 m<Superscript>2</Superscript> ring laser gyroscope for nano-rotational motion sensing

We present a fully active-controlled He–Ne ring laser gyroscope operating in square cavity having a side length of 1.35 m. The apparatus is designed to provide a very low mechanical and thermal drift of the ring cavity geometry and is conceived to be operative in two different orientations of the laser plane, in order to detect rotations around the vertical or the horizontal direction. Since June 2010, the system is active inside the Virgo interferometer central area with the aim of performing high-sensitivity measurements of environmental rotational noise. So far, continuous unattended operation of the gyroscope has been longer than 30 days. The main characteristics of the laser, the active remote-controlled stabilization systems and the data acquisition techniques are presented. An offline data processing, supported by a simple model of the sensor, is shown to improve the effective long-term stability. A rotational sensitivity at the level of \(10^{-8}~\mathrm{rad}/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}\) below 1 Hz, very close to the required specification for the improvement of the Virgo suspension control system, is demonstrated for the configuration where the laser plane is horizontal.     

Fiber ring laser for intracavity sensing using a whispering-gallery-mode resonator

Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonators are used as optical transducers for sensing applications. The typical detection scheme is based on tracking the WGM resonance shift, by scanning with a tunable laser, when a change of the refractive index in the region probed by the WGM takes place. We propose a sensing approach based instead on monitoring the position of the laser line of a fiber ring laser having a WGM microsphere in its loop. We have demonstrated that the induced shift is the same for the ring laser line and for the microsphere resonance. The proposed method requires simpler, cheaper equipment and may also improve the sensor resolution because the ring laser line is much narrower than the microsphere WGM resonance.     

All-fiber tunable ytterbium-doped double-clad fiber ring laser

We have designed and realized a cw all-fiber tunable Yb-doped double-clad fiber laser in a unidirectional ring cavity. The side-pumping V-groove technique is used, yielding very good launching efficiency of the high-power pumping laser diode, together with a compact configuration. The fiber laser delivers as much as 800 mW of power and is tunable in the spectral range 1.04-1.10 microm . The laser linewidth is ~0.1 nm .     

Harmonic mixing signal: Doubly dithered ring laser gyroscope

A general expression for the harmonic mixing signal generated by an overdamped periodic potential subject to two alternating fields of force in the presence of white gaussian noise is obtained. Application to the dithered ring laser gyroscopes is also discussed.     

Stable wavelength tunable fiber ring laser for true-time delay system

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel wavelength tunable fiber ring laser source for a photonic beamforming system to control phased-array antenna. In this fabrication, a Sagnac loop composed of a polarization-maintaining (PM) coupler and a piece of high-birefringence (Hi-Bi) PM fiber is acted as a comb filter to make the frequency spacing equal. The wavelength of the output signal is controlled by the tunable filter outside the Sagnac loop. The intensities of the output signals with different wavelengths increased or decreased at the same frequency spacing are equal. A five-channel true-time delay system consisting of this tunable fiber source and five grating delay lines for discrete beamsteering has been demonstrated. In the experiment, the output signals of the tunable fiber ring with the equal frequency spacing have the same intensity of about 5.9 dBm and the same high signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 40 dB. If the tunable filter in this laser is replaced by a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) tunable filter, the speed of switching wavelength will increase rapidly.     

Wavelength tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser operating in L-band

We describe a novel erbium-doped fiber ring laser utilizing the backward amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) power as a secondary pump source so that it can operate in L-band stably. The output wavelength can be tuned in a wide range of 45 nm, from 1560 to 1605 nm. We also compared this scheme with the condition of not using the ASE as secondary pump source, and found this scheme could improve the performance of the laser when using the same components.     

激光陀螺滤波评估方法研究

在现有硬件的基础上,通过滤波等软件算法来提高激光陀螺捷联惯导系统对准和导航精度是目前国内外学者所公认的。为了对激光陀螺滤波前后的效果进行准确、定量的评估,设计了Allan方差分析算法,开发了对准-导航及精度分析评估软件,分别从元件级、系统级对其展开了研究,并结合具体激光陀螺捷联惯导设备对其进行了实验验证。     

All-fiber wavelength tunable passively mode-locked erbium-doped ring laser

An all-fiber, wavelength-tunable, passively mode-locked erbium-doped ring laser is presented. Erbium-doped fibers (EDF) are used as the gain media because of their large gain bandwidth. Nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) plays the dual role of realizing mode-locking and effectively adjusting the intensity-dependent loss of the cavity. An unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer (UMZI) is used as a tunable optical beam filter. By using the UMZI and adjusting the polarization controllers (PCs), a sub-picosecond mode-locking laser is realized that is self-starting with central lasing wavelengths that can be accurately tuned over a range of about ~ sim 30 nm and also has controllable spacings between different tunable wavelengths.     

Effects of back reflection on the fiber ring laser gyroscope

In this Letter, the effects of the backreflection coefficient on a fiber ring laser gyroscope (FRLG) are discussed in detail. By applying the mode coupling equations, the eigenmodes in the FRLG are theoretically analyzed. We have found that the degree of intensity oscillation is intimately related to the backreflection coefficient in the FRLG; we have also explored the theoretical responding curve of FRLG. By utilizing a bidirectional filter with a tunable backreflection coefficient, our conclusions are proven. Two responding curves were obtained under two different backreflection coefficients, the scale factors of which are 1.4405 kHz/deg·s^-1 and 1.3096 kHz/deg·s^-1, respectively. The lock-in ranges of the curves are within 10 deg/s and 15 deg/s.     

Long-term frequency stabilization of a 16 m(2) ring laser gyroscope

A 16 m(2) helium-neon-based ring laser gyroscope has been frequency stabilized to within 60 kHz over a period of three months. This is achieved using the beat frequency of the ring laser and an iodine-stabilized reference laser as a feedback signal on a pressure vessel enclosing the entire laser, under servo control. We demonstrate that we can compensate for, and thereby negate the influence of, atmospheric pressure variations, which are considerable sources of long-term instability.