Influence of Er-doped superfluorescent fiber source's spectrum-stability on the SNR of fiber optic gyroscopes

The output spectrum-stability of Er-doped superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) was measured by changing the temperature around the excited Er-doped fiber (EDF). With the experiment results, the influences of the SFS's spectrum-stability on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) were simulated. The simulated results demonstrate that the SNR of FOG will change no matter the power, mean wavelength or the spectral bandwidth of the light output from the Er-doped SFS is changing. The results show that the changing of SNR caused by the output power's variation is three orders of magnitude larger than that caused by the variation of mean wavelength or bandwidth. And the main factor influencing the stability of FOG's SNR is the temperature-stability of the output power of Er-doped SFS.