PIC: Navigation grade chip scale gyro enabled by weak value amplification

高灵敏度和高稳定性的陀螺仪是无人机、无人机和卫星导航和运动传感的重要组成部分，特别是在GPS信号受到干扰或不可用的情况下，作为一种替代定位和导航技术。然而，最先进的技术是基于光纤陀螺，这种光纤陀螺包含几公里长的光纤线轴，或者是动态范围非常有限的机械陀螺。陀螺仪的灵敏度和稳定性必须从根本上在其尺寸和重量之间进行权衡。随着无人机、无人机和卫星变得越来越小和无处不在，对超小型导航级陀螺仪的需求将变得至关重要。最先进的微型陀螺仪结构紧凑、坚固耐用，但存在性能缺陷，阻碍了它们在导航中的应用。该计划将在一个小型手持光子芯片上提供体积光学陀螺仪的灵敏度水平，潜在地改变当今的导航方式。这项拟议的努力将点燃人们对科学的热情，并提高高中水平上代表性不足的人群在STEM中的留存率。PI将与大卫·T·卡恩斯艺术、科学和工程领导能力和多样性中心合作，通过罗切斯特市学区高中生的研究经验，激发他们对STEM职业的渴望，扩大未被充分代表的群体的参与。事实证明，弱值放大在比较同等检测的光学功率时，在光学干涉仪中提供了相位灵敏度优势。弱值放大放大了干涉测量的信号，而没有放大时间相关噪声、系统噪声和其他技术噪声的成本。然而，之前的弱价值放大演示也需要复杂的实验室设置和精致的对准。这一建议将发展描述光学陀螺弱值放大及其性能参数的理论。该理论还将模拟一种新的技术，即在测量旋转的同时将激光锁定在传感腔上。这种稳定策略是由弱值方案的拒绝光实现的，该弱值方案包含与旋转有关的微不足道的信息量，以将稳定与同一腔上的测量分开。这一理论背景将指导在具有高质量因子环形腔的光子芯片上实现弱值放大的实验方面。建议的陀螺仪将达到导航级性能指标，并比最先进的陀螺仪提高100倍。为实现弱价值放大而开发的光子结构，包括多模耦合器、可调高阶模耦合器和多级光子学，其应用超出了拟议的陀螺仪。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Gyroscopes with high sensitivity and stability are essential components for navigation and motion sensing used in drones, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and satellites, especially as an alternative Positioning and Navigation technology for situations where GPS signals are jammed or unavailable. However, state-of-the-art technology is based on optical fiber gyros that contain spools of fiber several kilometers long or mechanical gyros that have very limited dynamic range. The sensitivity and stability of a gyroscope must be fundamentally traded off between its size and weight. As drones, UAVs, and satellites become smaller and more ubiquitous, the need for ultracompact navigation grade gyroscopes will become critical. State-of-the-art miniaturized gyroscopes are compact and robust but suffer from a performance deficit that hinders their use in navigation. This program will provide the sensitivity level of bulk optical gyroscopes on a small, handheld photonic chip, potentially transforming how navigation is done today. The proposed effort will ignite the passion for science and increase retention in STEM among underrepresented populations at the high school level. The PI will work with the David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups through research experiences for high school students from the Rochester City School District that spark their desire for a career in STEM.Weak value amplification has proven to offer a phase sensitivity advantage in optical interferometers when comparing equal detected optical power. Weak value amplification amplifies the signal of an interferometric measurement without the cost of amplifying time correlated noise, systematic noise, and other technical noises. However, previous demonstrations of weak value amplification also require complex laboratory setups with exquisite alignment. This proposal will develop the theory that describes weak value amplification in optical gyros and their performance parameters. The theory will also model a novel technique of locking the laser to the sensing cavity while simultaneously measuring rotation. This stabilization strategy is enabled by the rejected light of the weak value scheme, which contains a negligible amount of information relating to the rotation, to separate the stabilization from the measurement on the same cavity. This theoretical background will guide the experimental side of project that will implement weak value amplification on a photonic chip with a high quality factor ring resonator. The proposed gyro will meet navigation grade performance metrics and improve over state-of-the-art by one hundred fold. The photonic structures that will be developed to implement weak value amplification, including multimode couplers, tunable higher order mode couplers, and multilevel photonics, have applications beyond the proposed gyroscope.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.