Proposal of a semiconductor ring laser gyroscope

We proposed a novel optical inertial rotation sensor using a semiconductor ring laser (SRL). The frequency difference between the two counter propagating oscillation frequencies was automatically generated in a mechanically rotated SRL, which consisted of a pig-tailed laser diode amplifier module. And the Sagnac frequency shift could be detected at the first time as a beat note by the terminal voltage change of the SRL without branching the circulating optical power. These experimental results verify that an SRL operates as an optical inertial rotation sensor based on the Sagnac effect.