Laser gyroscope is an optical gyroscope with broad application prospects on inertial navigation field. When the application environment of laser gyroscope changes, its performance will be affected. When the temperature changes, the laser gyroscope’s core part - ring resonator cavity will have thermal deformation, so the position of the mirror on the ring resonator cavity will simultaneously change. This will result in the change of optical path, then affect the performance of laser gyroscope. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of temperature to the ring resonator cavity. In this paper, the temperature field and the coupling field of the ring resonator cavity of laser gyroscope are simulated and analyzed on the ANSYS Workbench 14.0 platform. The temperature field distribution and deformation of the ring resonator in different temperature environments are studied. According to the simulation results, with the increase of temperature, the deformation of the ring resonator increases linearly in the fixed direction. In addition, the influence of the parameters of the ring resonator cavity on the deformation is studied. The material of the cavity—glass-ceramics’s deformation is linearly related to linear expansion coefficient and Young’s modulus. However, its correlation with thermal conductivity, density and Poisson's ratio is not obvious.

Temperature and coupling field analysis of ring resonator

Vibration-insensitive optical path length control transducer for ring laser gyroscope

Computer simulation of the processes in the resonator length control system of Zeeman laser gyros allows to predict their operation time on a single mode with high accuracy for sorting them without long technological tests.

Computer simulation of the Zeeman laser gyros resonator length control system behavior

The most important condition for achieving laser gyro (LG) stable operation and high precision characteristics is to ensure the constancy of the laser resonator length, so that the ring laser generates on a single mode. Computer simulation of processes in the resonator length control system of the Zeeman LG allows predicting its operating time on a single mode with keeping high accuracy. In the paper, the method of computer simulation is considered, which enables instead of multi-hour long technological tests during production to conduct short tests and then use the obtained data to prognosticate further LG behavior by applying an approximating function. The algorithm for the computer implementation of this method and the results of experimental studies, which confirmed an excellent coincidence of the approximating function with the experimental dependence, are presented. With the application of the proposed method, a multiple reduction of the technological stage duration of LG production is achieved with getting the data for sorting LGs on their accuracy. This permits us to improve Zeeman LG production arrangement, matching it with the basic principles of lean production, such as eliminating useless procedures, reducing the duration of technological operations.

Computer simulation of processes in the resonator length control system of the Zeeman laser gyro

The mirror transducer assembly causing light path variation of ring laser gyro is analyzed. This analysis reveals how the action mechanism of the mirror transducer assembly influences light path in ring laser gyro and to what extent it may have. The calculated results indicate that mirror tilt can induce a light path shift of about 10～20％ aperture diameter at the aperture transverse section. A test system is built to verify that it is the tilt of mirror transducer assembly which causes the light path variation at the aperture. At last, the impact of the action mechanism of light path variation on ring laser gyro performance is discussed.

XU Guang-ming

Papers

Ring laser gyro light path variations and its impact on gyro performance