Ultra-sensitive chip scale Sagnac gyroscope based on periodically modulated coupling of a coupled resonator optical waveguide.

We analyze the sensitivity to inertial rotations Ω of a micron scale integrated gyroscope consisting of a coupled resonator optical waveguide (CROW). We show here that by periodic modulation of the evanescent coupling between resonators, the sensitivity to rotations can be enhanced by a factor up to 10(9) in comparison to a conventional CROW with uniform coupling between resonators. Moreover, the overall shape of the transmission through this CROW superlattice is qualitatively changed resulting in a single sharp transmission resonance located at Ω = 0s-1 instead of a broad transmission band. The modulated coupling therefore allows the CROW gyroscope to operate without phase biasing and with sensitivities suitable for inertial navigation even with the inclusion of resonator losses.

Chirped area coupled resonator optical waveguide gyroscope.

We study the transmission of an optical field through a rotating coupled resonator optical waveguide (CROW) in which the size of the ring resonators changes from one ring to the next. We focus on symmetric integer wavelength chirps of the circumference of the rings relative to the central ring in the array. The transfer matrix method is used to obtain the transmission as a function of the inertial rotation rate Ω resulting from the Sagnac effect. Chirping increases the slope of the oscillations in the transmission as a function of Ω, which can be exploited to further enhance the rotation sensitivity beyond that of a CROW with uniform resonators.