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Optical gyroscope sensors based on optical whispering gallery mode resonators

  • US 8,514,400 B2
  • Filed: 03/23/2011
  • Issued: 08/20/2013
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. An optical gyroscope device, comprising:

  • a laser that produces laser light;

    an optical resonator fixed in position relative to the laser and made of an optical material and structured to support optical whispering gallery modes that propagate in opposite directions in a closed optical loop in the optical resonator;

    an optical coupler fixed relative to the optical resonator and evanescently coupled to the optical resonator to couple the laser light into one or more optical whispering gallery modes of the optical resonator and to couple the laser light in a particular optical whispering gallery mode inside the optical resonator as an injection laser beam back to the laser to cause injection locking of the laser to the particular optical whispering gallery mode;

    a beam splitter fixed in position in an optical path of the laser light between the laser and the optical coupler to split a portion of the laser propagating towards the optical coupler as a first laser beam and to split a portion of the injection laser beam propagating towards the laser into a second laser beam;

    a beam combiner fixed in position relative to the beam splitter to receive the first and second laser beam and to spatially overlap the received first and second laser beams to produce a combined laser beam;

    an optical detector that receives the combined laser beam to produce a detector output that contains phase shift information in the optical interference between the first and second laser beams indicating a rotation of the optical resonator.

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