Optical accelerometer

A waveguide optical accelerometer, comprising:

• a substrate;
• first and second retroreflector modules counterfacing along a measurement axis, disposed on the substrate, and cooperating to steer a first optical beam and a second optical beam along respective first and second optical paths of opposite helicities, each of the first and second optical paths forming an alternating sequence of parallel passes and antiparallel passes between the retroreflector modules, each of the parallel passes oriented parallel to the measurement axis and each of the antiparallel passes oriented antiparallel to the measurement axis;
• and
• a plurality of first optical waveguides formed from a first optical medium having a first refractive index, the first optical waveguides disposed on the substrate between the retroreflector modules such that the first optical beam propagates through one of the first optical waveguides for each of the parallel passes and the second optical beam propagates through one of the first optical waveguides for each of the antiparallel passes;
• a lid disposed over the first optical waveguides and retroreflector modules, the lid cooperating with the substrate and pairs of adjacent first optical waveguides to define a plurality of second optical waveguides, formed from a second optical medium having a second refractive index different from the first refractive index, such that the second optical beam propagates through one of the second optical waveguides for each of the parallel passes and the first optical beam propagates through one of the second optical waveguides for each of the antiparallel passes;
• wherein the first optical medium and the second optical medium cooperate to differentially phase-shift the first optical beam and the second optical beam according to an acceleration of the waveguide optical accelerometer along the measurement axis.