He-Ne Laser Gyroscope

Gaurav Nirala
Y0911017
th
8 Sem (Phy)

Introduction

Sagnac Effect
In this experiment ,light source from the source L is split by the beam splitter
in such a way that one half of the intensity goes in the clockwise direction and
the other in the anti-clockwise direction. The interference pattern is seen on
a screen.The whole setup is placed on a rotating platform.The screen and the
observer are both placed on the rotating platform. The interference pattern
shifts (this is the central result). At rest, an interference pattern is observed
but it changes when the whole setup is rotated.
The change in interference fringes is observed because of the different distances traversed by the two light rays due to rotation of the platform. The
following is a simple derivation of the above fact using a circular ring rotating
at an angular velocity .
If a light source emits in both directions from one point on the rotating ring,
light traveling in the same direction as the rotation direction needs to travel
more than one circumference around the ring before it catches up with the light
source from behind.The t1 it takes to catch up with the light source is :
t1 =

2R + L
c

(1)

L is the distance the mirror has moved during the same time.
L = Rt1

(2)

Eliminating L from both the equations, we get:

t1 =

2R
c R

(3)

Likewise, the light traveling in the opposite direction of the rotation will travel
less than one circumference before hitting the light source on the front side. So
the time for this direction of light to reach the moving source again is:
t2 =

2R
c + R
1

(4)

The time difference is :

t = t1 t2 =

4R2
c2 R 2 2

(5)

Since
R = v  c
4R2
4A
2
c2
c

t =

(6)

Here A is the area of the ring.

Although this simple derivation is for a circular ring, the result is in fact
general for any shape of rotating loop with area A.(more general proof is given
in the hand-out).
From the last equation , we can get the number of bright to dark transitions:
4A

(7)
c
The number of fringes is thus proportional to the angular speed and the
are A.
N=

Taking Special Relativity into account

Let us now calculate the same thing by transforming the line element to a
rotating frame of reference.The line element in polar coordinates for an inertial
frame of reference is given by:
ds2 = c2 dt2 dr2 r2 d2

(8)

The following transformation changes it to a rotating frame of reference.

dt = dt0

(9)

dr = dr

(10)

d = d + dt

(11)

Here is the relativistic factor.

The line element now becomes:
ds2 = 2 c2 dt02 R2 (d0 + dt0 )2 = 0

(12)

Here I have considered the fact that r0 = R and so dr0 = 0.

This is a quadratic equation in dt0 and has the following roots:
(dt0 )1,2 =

Rd0
(c R)

(13)

The roots are corresponding to the clockwise and anti-clockwise propagation of

light.The circulation times t01 and t02 are obtained by integrating 0 from 0 to 2
and 0 to 2.
2R
(c R)
2R
t02 =
(c + R)
t01 =

(14)
(15)

The assumption is does not depend on 0 .

The time difference in the rotating frame then becomes:
4R2
2 R2 )
4A
=
2
(c 2 R2 )

t01 t02 =

(c2

(16)
(17)

Laser Gyro and Beat Frequency

A certain rate of rotation induces a small difference between the time it takes
light to traverse the ring in the two directions according to the Sagnac effect. This introduces a tiny separation between the frequencies of the counterpropagating beams, a motion of the standing wave pattern within the ring,
and thus a beat pattern when those two beams are interfered outside the ring.
Therefore the net shift of that interference pattern follows the rotation of the
unit in the plane of the ring.

2.1

Mathematical Description

We shall describe it with the respect of Doppler Shift.Suppose the natural frequency of the laser is 0 . If it now starts moving at a velocity v, the frequency
shift due to doppler effect is given by:

v
= 0 1 +
(18)
c
If the velocity has been produced as a result of rotation, then the following value
of v is obtained:
vrot = r.
(19)
Here is the agular speed and r is the distance from the centre of rotation.
Thus the emission frequency changes to :

r. 
+ = 0 1 +
(20)
c
This is the expression when the velocity v is in the direction of rotation.The
following expression is for against the rotation.

r. 
+ = 0 1
(21)
c
3

The difference of both the frequencies:

= 0

4A
2.r.
=
.
c
L

(22)

Here A = r2 and L = 2..r. Thus it gives the same expression for the sagnac
effect.

Original setup

In a usual Sagnac Interferometer setup, the He-Ne Laser is produced within

the setup. (This is what is called a ring resonator).With the help of the mirror
with high reflection co-efficient two light beams of the same laser are guided
along the setup in a circular manner. An etalon(fabry-perot cavity) is attached
in the path of light to filter the particular wavelength.To measure the beat
frequency more accurately, the two opposite beams were fed in two seperate
silicon photo-detectors and their difference was measured. This whole assembly
was a triangular arrangement on a smoothly rotating platform.The picture of
the assembly is given.One difference between this setup and the one we used is
this setup uses a polarised laser beam(via brewster mirror) whereas we do not.

Figure 1: Original Setup

Our Setup and Observations

The adaptor to the power source of our was faulty , so we could not work with
the above mentioned apparatus. Instead we built a different setup.It was on a
rectangular optical table . We attached this table to the rotating platform of the
original setup. There is no lasing involved in our setup , we used a readymade
laser. Thus we worked with a passive sagnac interferometer.
Our setup looked like this one:

Figure 2: Our modified Laser

We initially worked with a non-polarising beam-splitter and mirrors. The
laser that we used was a diode laser. An etalon was placed in the light path.
After careful alignment , we inserted a beam-expander and observed a circular
interference pattern on the screen.But while rotating we did not observe any
fringe shift(sagnac effect). So we replaced the diode laser with a helium-neon
laser.The detector used was a silicon photo-detector.
5

In order to observe, the beat pattern , we fed the signal to the computer
and analysed the pattern using COBRA software. But no categorical beat
pattern was obtained.

Result and Conclusions

We could not detect any discernible signal out of the background noise in our
proposed setup. Even with the COBRA software , we did not manage to get
a frequency clearly higher than the background noise.While rotating the setup ,
no shift in interference pattern was observed also. The possible reasons for that
is explained below along with the discussion of the theory.
I do not think there was any flaw in the alignment of the setup. Since we
obtained the interference pattern with the setup. The flaw either arises
from our understanding or the measuring capacity of the apparatus used.
The size of our setup was smaller then origional setup.
No beat frequency was observed since it was a passive sagnac interferometer.
The back reflection from the flat surfaces of the beam splitter produces
spurious beams which can be a source of distraction.
The original setup uses a polarised laser beam . But we did not use any
which can be a source of error.