| 摘要 |
<p>Light from a light source is linearly polarized by a polarizer (13) and is then splitted by an optical splitter/couler (14) into two, which are simultanesouly coupled, as right-handed light and left-handed light, into both ends of an optical fiber coil (16). The right-handed light and left-handed light emitted from the both ends of the optical fiber coil are coupled by the optical splitter/couler into interference light, which is extracted after passing through the polarizer and is converted into an electric signal corresponding to its intensity. The phase difference between the right-handed light and the left-handed light, corresponding to an angular rate applied to the optical fiber coil, is detected from the electric signal. In the present invention, a depolarizer (25) is inserted in series at an arbitrary position in a loop from one end of the optical splitter/couler to the other end thereof via the optical fiber coil. The difference between the difference in propagation time between perpendicularly intersecting polarized light components in the depolarizer and the difference in propagation time between perpendicularly intersecting polarized light components in the optical fiber coil is selected larger that the coherence time of light which passes through the loop. <IMAGE></p> |
