Nonlinear enhanced microresonator gyroscope

Abstract

Optical gyroscopes based on the Sagnac effect have been the mainstay of inertial navigation in aerospace and shipping for decades. These gyroscopes are typically realized either as ring-laser gyroscopes (RLGs) or fiber-optic gyroscopes (FOGs). With the recent rapid progress in the field of ultrahigh-quality optical whispering-gallery mode and ring microresonators, attention has been focused on the development of microresonator-based Sagnac gyroscopes as a more compact alternative to RLGs and FOGs. One avenue that has been explored is the use of exceptional points in non-Hermitian systems to enhance the responsivity to rotation. We use a similar phenomenon, namely, the critical point of a spontaneous symmetry-breaking transition between counterpropagating light, to demonstrate a microresonator gyroscope with a responsivity enhanced by a factor of around 10 4 . We present a proof-of-principle rotation measurement as well as a characterization of the system’s dynamical response, which shows the universal critical behaviors of responsivity enhancement and critical slowing down, both of which are beneficial in an optical gyroscope. We believe that this concept could be used to realize simple and cheap chip-based gyroscopes with sensitivities approaching those of today’s RLGs and FOGs.

Towards Ultrafast Gyroscopes Employing Real-time Intensity and Spectral Domain Measurements of Ultrashort Pulses

“…In this work, we used a bidirectional mode-locked laser as a convenient and straightforward platform to generate and study dynamics of ultrashort pulses during cavity rotation. However, recent works on seismology and gyroscopy using interferometers based on telecommunication optical fibre cables 42 , passive ultrafast FOGs 43 or microresonator gyroscopes 44 clearly demonstrate the high potential of enhancing their performance further by using the novel approaches and methodology of measurements demonstrated here. Although it remains a subject for further investigation, we anticipate that the availability of new a generation of measurement techniques will lead to development of new technology solutions for real-time gyroscopes.…”

4-Dimensional Symmetry Breaking of Light in Kerr Ring Resonators

“…Atop these novel field behaviours, the system further provides the option of producing, on a single device, the field behaviours of the two separate systems, counter-propagation and orthogonal polarizations. This is to say, it can produce the behaviours of two counter propagating fields -lending itself to applications such as enhancing the Sangac effect for use in rotation sensors [5], gyroscopes [14], and elsewhere, and in the realisation of all-optical components, such as isolators and circulators [22], while also being able to produce the behaviours of the system with two orthogonal polarisation components, allowing for applications such as acting as a Kerr polarisation controller [19], potentially supporting temporal cavity solitons for the generation of frequency combs [20,21], or even for use in optical neural networks used in artificial intelligence applications or for systems for quantum information processing. The benefit of this combined system however should be obvious -it can achieve the behaviours of both systems simultaneously, all while taking place within one resonator.…”

“…The first symmetry breaking principle is due to the counter-propagation of two input beams in opposite directions, which are otherwise identical. The evolutions of counter-propagating fields circulating ring resonators, including their SSB, have been studied extensively theoretically [5][6][7][8][9][10][11], and, more recently, experimentally [12][13][14]. The second symmetry breaking principle that is important for our discussions is that of a single, linearly polarised, laser input splitting into two orthogonally polarised components.…”

Anti-$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Kerr gyroscope

“…Moreover, our proposal can be applied to other APT systems with various types of nonlinearity such as second-order nonlinearity [101], optomechanical interactions [102], and hybridized atomcavity interactions [103]. Note added-After submission of this paper, we notice a new experiment on nonlinear enhanced microresonator gyroscope [104], which demonstrated an optical gyroscope with a responsivity enhanced by a factor of around 10 4 using the critical point of a spontaneous symmetry-breaking transition between counterpropagating light.…”