Radiation-Induced Magneto-Optic Fluctuations in Spaceborne Fiber-Optic Gyroscope

Radiation-induced magneto-optic fluctuations (RI-MOF) is a kind of environmental compounding effect of fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) in space application. Here, we suggested a model of RI-MOF and experimentally tested it in irradiated polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs) and polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fibers (PM-PCFs). The test results reveal that the main sources of RI-MOF are the radiation-induced change of the Verdet constant and the modal birefringence. In a spacecraft with good thermal control conditions, an evaluation method based on the RI-MOF model can be summarized and implemented to suppress the environmental disturbance on the performance of FOG.