Boston Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society

Abstract:  While it has been known for four decades that usage of high finesse optical cavities enables high sensitivity compact optical gyroscopes, practical implementation of the device was hindered by multiple technical reasons including Rayleigh scattering and optical nonlinearity of the cavity. We here report on the demonstration of a heterogeneously integrated passive gyroscope using a monolithic cavity characterized with a few millimeter diameter, finesse approaching a million and back scattering less than 10 ppm. We show that the quantum back action associated with the resonantly enhanced optical cross- and self-phase modulation results in the standard quantum limit of the angle random walk of the gyroscope. The demonstrated device is characterized with the quantum noise limited angle random walk of 0.03 deg/hr^1/2 and bias drift of a few deg/hr, corresponding to the detection of rotation originated optical path change of 10^(-16) cm. We also describe a microresonator-based Raman gyroscope and report on an accurate measurement of the frequency splitting of a monolithic  optical rotating ring  microcavity. By measuring the frequencies of the clockwise and counterclockwise coherent Raman emission confined in the cavity modes we show that the frequency splitting is inversely proportional to the refractive index of the cavity host material. The measurement unambiguously confirms the classical theoretical prediction based on  special theory of relativity.

Biography:  Dr. Matsko, CTO of OEwaves Inc., has actively worked in the fields of laser physics, quantum and nonlinear optics, photonics, and quantum measurement theory since 1991. He contributed to the development of  technology involving crystalline whispering gallery mode resonators, including electro-optical modulators, RF photonic receivers, optical and RF photonic filters, delay lines, clocks, magnetometers, gyroscopes, oscillators, and lasers. Dr. Matsko has authored and coauthored more than 160 peer-reviewed papers as well as forty one US Patents. He is a Fellow of OSA as well as Senior Member of IEEE and SPIE.