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

惯性导航系统是现代飞机的重要组成部分。陀螺仪是一种可以根据惯性参考系统确定其方向的设备，反过来又是导航系统的关键部件。基于萨格纳克效应的光学陀螺仪在灵敏度上具有领先优势。萨格纳克效应对光的影响取决于它是沿着旋转传播还是反向传播。目前发展最好的光学陀螺仪，包括激光陀螺仪和光纤陀螺仪，以高成本、大尺寸和重量以及低可靠性为代价，提供了优异的性能。因此，它们不适合用于需要导航系统的小型设备，例如小型无人驾驶飞机。微机械陀螺仪在手机等设备中工作得很好，但由于内在因素，其灵敏度至少比光学陀螺仪差100倍。有必要找到一种光学陀螺仪，它比标准纤维陀螺仪更紧凑，同时具有相当的灵敏度水平。被动窃窃廊模式（WGM）光学微谐振器为我们提供了一种利用Sagnac效应来检测旋转的直接方法。这些谐振器，当它们可以以非常低的损耗（或相应的，非常高的Q因子）制造时，已被提出作为激光和基于光纤的陀螺仪的紧凑替代品。损耗越低，角旋转的基本检测限越小。为了达到甚至超过标准光学陀螺仪的灵敏度，需要Q因子在几亿数量级的WGM谐振器。在此，我们建议开发具有超高Q因子的表面纳米级轴向光子谐振器（snapr），并评估其集成到陀螺仪中的性能。这些谐振器将由使用火焰刷工艺的纯玻璃圆柱体制成。谐振器将使用倏逝耦合锥形微光纤进行光谱表征，并集成到测试陀螺仪平台中以评估其性能。

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.