Mode-assisted Silicon Integrated Interferometric Optical Gyroscope

Abstract

The increasing demands in consumer electronics markets have promoted the development of chip-scale optical gyroscopes. In this study, a mode-assisted on-chip silicon-on-insulator interferometric optical gyroscope is proposed and assessed. The proposed gyroscope uses two different spatial modes propagating oppositely in the sensing waveguide coil to form a fixed phase difference that ensures the system operating at the best sensitive point. Compared with conventional schemes, it avoids the phase modulator and the circulator, which are not easy to be integrated in the same platform. The simulated results show that the detectable angular rate reaches 0.64 deg/s with a footprint of 3.85 × 10−3 m2. The experimental results validate the realization of the highly sensitive phase bias of the fabricated device.