New Generation Integrated Optical Gyroscopes

This paper reports on a critical discussion about the state-of-the-art of integrated optical gyroscope. After a short introduction on operating principles and physical parameters, which affect the performance of an integrated optical angular velocity sensor, we focus our attention on active [1], passive [2] and "slow light" integrated optical gyroscopes [3]. For the active configuration, based on a ring laser, in which two counterpropagating beams are generated within the active cavity, the fundamental limit on the minimal detectable angular velocity comes from quantum limit, lock-in effect and mode competition. Passive resonator configuration is supplied by two counterpropagating input signals and the limit to the performance is related to shot noise of the photodetector. New solutions for passive integrated angular velocity sensors are the "slow light" integrated optical gyroscopes based on high-Q coupled micro-cavities realized in photonic crystal technology [4-5] or in ring resonators technology [6].