Exploring surface nanoscale axial photonics resonators for ultrahigh-resolution optical gyroscope applications

探索用于超高分辨率光学陀螺仪应用的表面纳米级轴向光子谐振器

• 批准号: 542549-2019
• 负责人: Bianucci, Pablo
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Concordia University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=680703
• 关键词: Exploring; surface; nanoscale; axial; photonics

Inertial navigation systems are an essential component of modern aircraft. Gyroscopes, devices that can ascertain their orientation with respect to an inertial reference system, are in turn critical parts of a navigation system. Optical gyroscopes based on the Sagnac effect, which affects light differently depending on whether it is propagating along or counter the rotation, comport the cutting edge in sensitivity. The best developed optical gyroscopes, laser and fibre optics based ones, offer excellent performance at the expense of high cost, large size and weight, as well as low reliability. Thus, they are not suitable to be used in compact devices requiring a navigational system, such as small unmanned aircraft. There are micromechanical gyroscopes that work well enough in devices such as cell phones, however their sensitivity is at least 100-times worse than that of optical gyroscopes due to intrinsic factors.There is a need to find an optical gyroscope that is more compact that standard fibre ones, while sporting comparable sensitivity levels. Passive whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical microresonators give us a straightforward way to harness the Sagnac effect to detect rotations. These resonators, when they can be fabricating with very low losses (or, correspondingly, very high Q factors) have been proposed as a compact alternative to laser and fibre-based gyroscopes. The lower the losses, the smaller the fundamental detection limit of angular rotations becomes. In order to meet and surpass the sensitivity of the standard optical gyroscopes, WGM resonators with Q factors on the order of a few hundred million are necessary. Here, we propose to develop surface nanoscale axial photonics resonators (SNAPRs), with ultra-high Q factors, and to evaluate their performance once integrated into gyroscopes. These resonators will be fabricated from pure glass cylinders using a flame brush processes. The resonators will be characterized using spectroscopy with an evanescently coupled tapered microfiber, and integrated into a test gyroscope platform to evaluate their performance.

惯性导航系统是现代飞机的重要组成部分。陀螺仪是一种可以确定其相对于惯性参考系的方向的设备，而陀螺仪又是导航系统的关键部件。基于Sagnac效应的光学陀螺仪对光的影响取决于它是沿旋转传播还是逆旋转，在灵敏度上伴随着尖端。最先进的光学陀螺仪，基于激光和光纤的陀螺仪，以高成本、大尺寸和大重量以及低可靠性为代价提供优异的性能。因此，它们不适合用于需要导航系统的紧凑型设备，如小型无人机。微机械陀螺仪在手机等设备中工作得很好，但由于固有因素，它们的灵敏度至少比光学陀螺仪差100倍。需要找到一种比标准光纤陀螺仪更紧凑，同时具有类似灵敏度水平的光学陀螺仪。无源回音廊模式(WGM)光学微谐振器为我们提供了一种直接利用萨格纳克效应来检测旋转的方法。这些谐振器，当它们可以制造非常低的损耗(或者，相应地，非常高的Q因数)时，已经被提议作为激光和基于光纤的陀螺仪的紧凑型替代品。损耗越小，角度旋转的基本检测下限就越小。为了达到和超过标准光学陀螺的灵敏度，需要Q因子在数亿量级的WGM谐振器。在这里，我们建议开发具有超高Q因子的表面纳米尺度轴向光子谐振器，并对其集成到陀螺仪中后的性能进行评估。这些谐振器将由纯玻璃圆柱体使用火焰刷子工艺制造。谐振器将使用渐变耦合锥形微光纤的光谱学进行表征，并集成到测试陀螺仪平台中以评估其性能。