This paper presents the application of the vector modulation method (VMM) to an open-loop interferometric fiber optic gyroscope, called the north finder capability gyroscope (NFCG), designed and assembled in TUBITAK UME (National Metrology Institute of Turkey). The method contains a secondary modulation/demodulation circuit with an AD630 chip, depending on the periodic variation of the orientation of the sensing coil sensitive surface vector with respect to geographic north at a laboratory latitude and collection of dc voltage at the secondary demodulation circuit output in the time domain. The resultant dc voltage proportional to the first-kind Bessel function based on Sagnac phase shift for the first order is obtained as a result of vector modulation together with the Earth's rotation. A new model function is developed and introduced to evaluate the angular errors of the NFCG with VMM in finding geographic north.
In this study, a novel interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG), which has a different depolarizer structure, is designed in TUBITAK UME (National Metrology Institute of Turkey) to experimentally and relatively evaluate the effect of the degree of polarization on the Faraday effect-based drift of the light waves injected into both arms of a Sagnac interferometer. In order to observe whether or not any change occurs in the Faraday-based drift, depending on the variations in degree of polarization (DOP), a triple structure-depolarizer IFOG possessing adjustable DOP is firstly designed and prototyped. The minimum DOP achieved with triple structure-depolarizers is typically 0.15% for both clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) light waves at both arms of the Sagnac interferometer. The experimental evaluations about the drift are given for DOP changes extending from 78.00% to 0.15% together with two main and different theoretical approaches in the literature. According to the experimental evaluations given herein, it is experimentally proved that the Faraday-based drift does not change depending on DOP values of both CW and CCW light waves injected into the single-mode (SM) sensing coil and it is impossible to state a concept of a depolarized IFOG by considering the polarization state at the entrance arms of the SM sensing coil.
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