High-Q microsphere resonators for angular velocity sensing in gyroscopes

A resonator gyroscope based on the Sagnac effect is proposed using a core unit that is generated by water-hydrogen flame melting. The relationship between the quality factor Q and diameter D is revealed. The Q factor of the spectral lines of the microsphere cavity coupling system, which uses tapered fibers, is found to be 10(6) or more before packaging with a low refractive curable ultraviolet polymer, although it drops to approximately 10(5) after packaging. In addition, a rotating test platform is built, and the transmission spectrum and discriminator curves of a microsphere cavity with Q of 3.22 x 10(6) are measured using a semiconductor laser (linewidth less than 1 kHz) and a real-time proportional-integral circuit tracking and feedback technique. Equations fitting the relation between the voltage and angular rotation rate are obtained. According to the experimentally measured parameters, the sensitivity of the microsphere-coupled system can reach 0.095 degrees/s. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.