Closed loop fiber optic gyroscope

An evaluation is made of test results for a closed loop breadboard gyroscope based on an ordinary, single mode fiber and a multimode laser diode; both short and long term rotation rate bias stability data are presented. System performance is indicated in both the frequency and time domains. The best performance achieved was a rotation rate noise of 5.0 deg/hr for 1-sec integration time, and 0.55 deg/hr for 100-sec integration. The extrapolated drift of 0.093 deg/sq rt-hr is noted to be less than an order of magnitude above the shot noise limit. A long term 6-hr bias stability of 1 deg/hr has also been achieved.