Chinese scientists created the first ever "navigation-grade interferometric air-core fibre optic gyroscope" in the world, with low "bias instability drift" and low thermal sensitivity.
We present a groundbreaking navigation-grade interferometric air-core fibre optic gyroscope (IFOG) using a quadrupolar-wound coil of four-tube truncated double nested antiresonant nodeless fibre (
tDNANF). This state-of-the-art
tDNANF simultaneously achieves low loss, low bend loss, single-spatial-mode operation, and exceptional linear polarization purity over a broad wavelength range. Our 469 m
tDNANF coil demonstrated a polarization extinction ratio (PER) of ~20 dB when illuminated by an amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source spanning 1525-1565 nm.
Under these conditions, the gyro archives an angular random walk (ARW) of 0.00383 deg h−1/2 and a bias instability (BI) drift of 0.0017 deg h−1, marking the first instance of navigation-grade performance in air-core FOGs. Additionally, we validated the low thermal sensitivity of air-core FOGs, with reductions of 9.24/10.68/6.82 compared to that of conventional polarization-maintaining solid-core FOGs of the same size across various temperature ranges. These results represent a significant step towards long-standing promise of high-precision inertial navigation applications with superior environmental adaptability.
4月14日，中船集团旗下七〇七所和暨南大学等构建的深度合作研究团队，在国际权威顶级期刊《Nature Communications》发表了题为“Navigation-grade interferometric air-core anti-resonant fibre optic gyroscope with enhanced thermal stability”的最新研究成果，实现了空芯光纤陀螺领域的新突破。
该技术可推动光纤惯性导航系统的技术升级和产品创新，随着空芯光纤制备与陀螺整机集成相关工艺的不断成熟，空芯光纤陀螺有望成为下一代高精度光纤惯性导航系统的标配器件，推动整个行业向更高性能、更小体积、更低功耗的方向发展。
光纤陀螺仪是主流的导航元件之一，但传统实芯光纤陀螺材料的固有缺陷始终制约着温度、磁场等性能边界，致使设备体积、功耗增大。为破解这一困局，国际学术界自20世纪90年代起，便将目光投向空芯光纤技术路线，但始终深陷“理论完美、工程无解”的困境。
多年来，该团队始终聚焦空芯光纤陀螺整机构建技术困境，并创新性地形成了空芯光纤环圈波导空间耦合封装和匹配空芯光纤物性特点的环圈制作技术，攻克了空芯光纤陀螺样机构建瓶颈难题。
研究团队通过一系列创新实现了两大技术跨越：
1 精度突破：首次将空芯光纤陀螺提升至导航级精度；
2 环境稳定性：验证出温度灵敏度较传统光纤陀螺降低一个数量级。
这一成果标志着我们在空芯光纤陀螺技术领域实现从理论创新到工程应用研究的跨越，为惯性导航技术发展镌刻下鲜明的印记。
