Suppression of backscattering induced noise by the sideband locking technique in a resonant fiber optic gyroscope

Polarization fluctuation induced noise and backscattering-induced noise are the dominant noises in resonant fiber optic gyroscopes. This Letter proposes a new method to suppress the carrier and backscattering induced noise by the sideband locking technique. Besides choosing an optimized modulation depth and different clockwise and counterclockwise modulation frequencies, the sideband is locked to the cavity resonance. With the proper modulation frequency, the carrier frequency component locates at a position far away from the resonant frequency, and then it is suppressed by the cavity itself, which can be taken as a bandpass filter. The amplitude of the carrier frequency can be suppressed by 20–25 d B additionally by the cavity and the total intensity suppression ratio can reach 115.74 d B. The backscattering induced noise can be eliminated for the adoption of different frequencies. The method can realize a stable and high suppression ratio without high requirements for parameter accuracy or device performance.