Fiber-optic gyroscope with a dual-injection polarization-maintaining 3x3 directional coupler for enhanced measurement sensitivity through heterodyne

A fiber-optic gyroscope, comprising:

• (a) a light source for generating a pair of source light beams of the same frequency, including a first source light beam and a second source light beam, which are both linearly-polarized and originally aligned in phase and oriented in same polarity with respect to each other;
• (b) a dual-injection polarization-maintaining 3×3 directional coupler comprising:
• a main waveguide having a front port for receiving the first source light beam and a rear port for simultaneously receiving the second source light beam;
• and
• a pair of branching waveguides arranged in parallel alongside the main waveguide;
• wherein the first source light beam propagating through the main waveguide is split into a pair of interrogating beams which propagate respectively through the paired branching waveguides;
• and
• wherein the main waveguide and the paired branching waveguides are arranged and configured to operate in a polarization-maintaining mode that allows the split pair of interrogating beams to maintain the same polarity as the first source light beam and the second source light beam;
• (c) a coiled optical fiber of a polarization-maintaining type, which is arranged and configured to receive the paired interrogating beams from the dual-injection polarization-maintaining 3×3 directional coupler for observation and measurement of Sagnac effect due to a rotational movement about a referenced axis, where the paired interrogating beams after exiting from the coiled optical fiber are transferred back to the dual-injection polarization-maintaining 3×3 directional coupler;
• and
• (d) an optical signal processing unit for receiving and optically sensing the paired interrogating beams that have passed through the coiled optical fiber and the dual-injection polarization-maintaining 3×3 directional coupler to thereby generate an output signal that indicates the angle and speed of the rotational movement about the referenced axis;
• wherein
• the second source light beam is injected into the rear port of the main waveguide such that the second source light beam is mixed with the paired interrogating beams that have passed through and returned from the coiled optical fiber and are passing through the paired branching waveguides to thereby provide a heterodyne effect for boosting the differential optical power amplitude of the paired interrogating beams to achieve enhanced optical measurement sensitivity.