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Abstract

An optical fiber rotation sensor includes a source of coherent light and a first polarizing beam splitter for transmitting a first component of the coherent light having a first polarization direction and reflecting a second component of the coherent light having a second polarization direction orthogonal to the first polarization direction. A coiled multimode optical fiber is coupled to the first beam splitter with the first and second components propagating in the fiber in opposite directions. A polarizer transmits a linearly polarized third component containing equal contributions from the first and second components. A half-wave plate rotates the polarization of the third component by 45.degree.. A self-pumped phase conjugating element reflects a phase-conjugated fourth component such that the fourth component retraverses the half-wave plate and the polarizer, then is divided by the first polarizing beam splitter into fifth and sixth components propagating in the fiber in opposite directions. A second polarizing beam splitter transmits a seventh component having the first polarization direction and reflects an eighth component having the second polarization direction. A first detector measures the power of the seventh component, while a second detector measures the power of the eighth component, the difference being related to the angular motion of the rotation sensor.

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