Abstract
Optical gyroscopes are among the most accurate rotation measuring devices and are widely used for navigation and accurate pointing. Since the advent of photonic integrated components for communications, and with their increasing complexity, there has been interest in the possibility of chip-scale optical gyroscopes1. Besides the potential benefits of integration, such solid-state systems would be robust and resistant to shock. Here, we report a gyroscope using Brillouin ring lasers on a silicon chip. Its stability and sensitivity enable measurement of Earth’s rotation, representing a major milestone for this new class of gyroscope.
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Data availability
The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Code availability
The code that supports the plots within this paper and other findings of this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Change history
25 March 2020
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-0622-0
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for financial support (N66001-16-1-4046) and A. Chern, C.-L. Liu, L. Peng and X. Yi at Caltech for helpful discussions. We also gratefully acknowledge the critical support and infrastructure provided for this work by The Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech.
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Y.-H.L., M.-G.S., J.L. and K.V. conceived the offset-counter-pumped SBL gyroscope for the Earth rotation measurement; M.-G.S. fabricated the microresonator devices; Y.-H.L. and M.-G.S. conducted the measurement, with assistance from J.L., Y.-K.L., B.S., Q.-F.Y., S.H.L. and K.Y.Y.; Y.-H.L., M.-G.S. and K.V. analysed the data; Y.-H.L., Y.-K.L. and K.V. derived the theory; H.W. provided the Kerr linewidth analysis; Y.-H.L., M.-G.S. and K.V. contributed to writing the manuscript; K.V. supervised the project.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Packaged gyroscope.
Photograph of a 36mm-diameter silica resonator ring laser gyroscope packaged in a brass module with a thermoelectric cooler and fiber connectors.
Extended Data Fig. 2 System diagram of Earth rotation measurement.
See text for operational description. EDFA: erbium-doped fiber amplifier, AOM: acoustic-optical modulator, PM: phase modulator, PD: photo-detector, FC: frequency counter, TM: temperature monitor, PI: proportional-integral servo, ESA: electrical spectrum analyzer, RF: radio frequency, TEC: thermal electric cooler, f1 (f2): modulation frequency of AOM1 (AOM2), fPDH: modulation frequency of the phase modulator for Pound-Drever-Hall locking loop. The ESA is used for beat signal characterization on the photodetectors and is disconnected during the Earth rotation measurement.
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Lai, YH., Suh, MG., Lu, YK. et al. Earth rotation measured by a chip-scale ring laser gyroscope. Nat. Photonics 14, 345–349 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-0588-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-020-0588-y
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