SCIENCE CHINA

Technological Sciences
Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 tech.scichina.com www.springerlink.com

*Corresponding author (email: jinjing@buaa.edu.cn)
RESEARCH PAPER
November 2010 Vol.53 No.11: 30563060
doi: 10.1007/s11431-010-4043-z
Effect of
60
Co-gamma radiation on the random walk error of
interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes
JIN Jing
*
, WANG XueQin, SONG NingFang & ZHANG ChunXi
School of Instrument Science and Optic-electronics Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Received April 9, 2010; accepted June 12, 2010

Two
60
Co-gamma radiation experiments were launched to explore the radiation effect on optical components and interferomet-
ric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG). In optical components radiation experiment, the result showed that polarization-maintaining
(PM) fiber coil loss was the most affected parameter in all the RWC (random walk coefficient) related parameters, compared
with the weak sensitivity of other components parameters. In the IFOG radiation experiment, the RWC performance degrada-
tion was found to be almost due to an increase of the PM fiber attenuation. Based on the experiment result, a RWC prediction
model in radiation, which is obtained by embedding PM fiber loss expression into the RWC model, was built following a
power law of dose and dose rate. An IFOG RWC in space radiation environment was predicted from radiation dose and dose
rate by the RWC prediction model. This RWC value calculated from test data is fully accorded to the RWC value predicted
from radiation dose.
fiber optic gyroscope, radiation effects, random walk, fiber loss

Citation: Jin J, Wang X Q, Song N F et al. Effect of
60
Co-gamma radiation on the random walk error of interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes. Sci China Tech
Sci, 2010, 53: 30563060, doi: 10.1007/s11431-010-4043-z



1 Introduction
Interferometric fiber optic gyroscope (IFOG) has particular
advantages for space application, which is benefited from
its high reliability as a solid state technique with immovable
parts. Moreover, the intrinsic sensitivity to thermal transient
and to vibrations is affordable on satellites, which is always
with good thermal controller and quiet mechanical ambient
on orbit [1, 2]. However, the radiation exposure in space
can damage the IFOG components and cause degradations
on random walk coefficient (RWC), bias and scale factor
[36]. Therefore, it is important to determine the radiation
effects on IFOG for space application.
A radiation-induced attenuation model of fiber was built
based on the radiation damage principle of fiber in previous
researches [58]. The effect of proton radiation on the IFOG
components was introduced in refs. [38], the radiation-
induced degradation in the IFOG performance was analyzed
in refs. [3, 5]. Nevertheless, radiation effects on IFOG RWC
at 1300 nm wavelength have rarely been explored until re-
cently.
To analyze and verify the IFOG RWC performance deg-
radation owing to radiation effects, a RWC expression was
deduced based on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) model,
IFOG component parameters and RWC sensitivities to -ray
irradiation at 1300 nm were tested, radiation-induced loss
in the polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber was determined
to make the most contribution to RWC, and a RWC predic-
tion model was finally built. The RWC prediction model
could be used to predict RWC of IFOG in the space radia-
tion environment of high total dose and low dose rate, as it

JIN Jing, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2010) Vol.53 No.11 3057
could represent effect of radiation dose and dose rate on
RWC.
2 IFOG random walk error (RWE)
The detected photocurrent in square wave modulated closed
loop IFOG could be expressed as [1]
( ) ( )
p s b
1 cos I Pn o o = + A + , (1)
where Ao
s
is the Sagnac phase difference, o
b
is bias modu-
lation phase, n is the responsivity of the detector, P can be
expressed as

( )
c
10
o
10
A AL
P P
+
= , (2)
where P
o
is the source power coupled to the optical circuit,
L is the length of the fiber coil, A is the fiber loss in dB/km,
and A
c
includes all the other optical circuit losses due to the
fiber couplers, polarizer, integrated optics chip (IOC) and its
pigtail, and splices.
Demodulated photocurrent mean at detection can be ex-
pressed as [1]

s b s
sin sin I Pn o o = A . (3)
For the closed-loop operational IFOG, Ao
s
is minus when
compared with o
b
[1], so that, formulas (1) and (3) could be
represented as
( )
p b
1 cos I Pn o ~ + , (4)

s s b
sin I Pn o o ~ A . (5)
The most relevant noise sources affecting optoelectronic
systems performance may be listed as shot noise, source
intensity noise, thermal noise and dark current noise in de-
tector. Considering that the RWE performance in IFOG is
limited mainly by these noise sources, the photocurrent
noise power at detection may be expressed as [9, 10]

2
p 2
p d
4
2 2
I B
kTB
eI B eI B
R
o
v
= + + +
A
, (6)
where k is the Boltzmann constant, T the absolute tempera-
ture, e the electron charge, Av the source spectral bandwidth
in the frequency domain, R the detector load resistance, B
the detector bandwidth, and I
d
the detector dark current.
The SNR at the detection can be calculated as follows:

( )
2
s
2
I
SNR
o
= . (7)
Deduced from eqs. (5), (6), and (7):

( )
( )
( )
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
2
s s
2
2
b b d
2 2 2 2
b b b b
2 1 cos 1 cos 2 4
sin sin sin sin
I
SNR
e eI kT
B
P P R P
m
o
o o
n o v o n o n o
A
= =
+ +
+ + +
A
. (8)
The denominator of eq. (8) is noise phase o
n
as Ao
s
is the signal phase. RWC of IFOG could be expressed as [1]

( )
( )
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
2
b b d n
2 2 2 2
b b b b
2 1 cos 1 cos 2 4
2 2
sin sin sin sin
e eI c c kT
RWC
LD LD B P P R P
o o o
n o v o n o n o
+ +
= = + + +
t t
A
, (9)
where the diameter of fiber coil is D, wavelength of light is
and light speed is c in vacuum. We set o
b
=

t/2 to simplify
the analysis, then it could be expressed as

( ) ( )
d
2 2
2 2 1 4
2
eI c e kT
RWC
LD P
P R P

n v
n n
= + + +
t A
. (10)
3 Analysis of IFOG RWE performance degra-
dation due to radiation effects
Known from eqs. (2) and (10), the IFOG RWE was affected
by component parameters P
o
, A
c
, A, n, I
d
, Av, . In a radia-
tion-free environment, the optical circuit losses A
c
, A and
detector dark current I
d
sensitivities to radiation effects will
induce an increase in shot noise and detector noise levels. A
falloff of the source power P
o
or detector responsivity n will
also increase the shot noise and detector noise levels. Other
possible effects would be a change in the source intensity
noise, which depends on the source spectral bandwidth Av.
However, the source intensity noise and its radiation effects
could be suppressed by a compensation system [9].
To verify the IFOG RWE performance degradation due
to radiation effects, we test the IFOG sensitivity to -ray
irradiation at the 1300 nm wavelength, including component
parameters and closed-loop operational IFOG RWE.
3.1 IFOG component radiation effects test and analysis
The PM fiber coil, super-luminescent diode (SLD) source,
detector, coupler and IOC were exposed to -ray at the
60
Co
pool at dose rates of 6 rad/min to a total dose of 20 krad.
Fiber coil loss data was recorded lively in the whole radia-
3058 JIN Jing, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2010) Vol.53 No.11
tion test process, other components parameters were only
measured before and after irradiation. Tables 1 and 2 sum-
marized the IFOG component radiation test results.
Known from Tables 1 and 2, the most significant effect
of radiation on RWC is an increase in the PM fiber coil loss.
Moreover, the other components parameters have no obvi-
ous effects on RWC of FOG. The mean wavelength of the
source output changes about 500 ppm after radiation, and
there also has literature reporting the radiation induced out-
put mean wavelength variation for laser diodes and light
emission diodes [11, 12]. This 500 ppm variation can ob-
servably influence the scale factor in IFOG.
The origin of radiation-induced attenuation in optical fi-
bers is the color centers that are created by trapping of ra-
diolytic electrons and holes by charging precursor defect
centers, such as non-bridging oxygen, Si-Si bonds, and the
presence of dopants or impurities. The color centers could
generate new absorption band in fiber, which lead to a deg-
radation of optical transmission efficiency [5, 6].
The radiation-induced fiber loss A obeys a power law of
radiation dose d and radiation dose rate r [6, 7]:

b f
A qr d = , (11)
where q, b and f are constants. The dependence of loss A on
radiation dose d can be fit to a power law if a fixed dose rate
r could be hold:

f
A gd = , (12)
where g is a constant, f is independent of radiation dose rate r.
Known from Figure 1, the solid line represents the test
result of the PM fiber coil loss, dash line represents the fit-
ting result of the PM fiber coil loss by eq. (12) and radiation
dose data. The fitted equation is

0.84
0.004 A d = . (13)
3.2 The closed-loop operational IFOG radiation effects
test and analysis
The radiation test diagram of the closed-loop operational
IFOG is shown in Figure 2, the parameters of the experi-
mental IFOG are listed in Table 3. In the experiment, the
radiation dose rate and total dose are 6 rad/min and 20 krad,
respectively, the ambient temperature is 23C and the col-
lected IFOG output data indicate rotational angular velocity.
Table 1 IFOG component radiation test results
Parameter Before radiation After radiation
Fiber coil attenuation (dB/km) 1.11 17.86
Detector responsivity (A/W) 0.9 0.9
Detector dark current (nA) 6 11
Coupler attenuation (dB) 0.52 0.59
IOC attenuation (dB) 3.95 4.1

Table 2 Source radiation test results
Before radiation After radiation
Dive current
(mA)
Power (uW)
Spectral bandwidth
(nm)
Mean wavelength
(nm)
Power (uW)
Spectral bandwidth
(nm)
Mean wavelength
(nm)
70 100 36.7 1303.2 104 38.4 1303.7
80 130 37 1302.5 127 38.5 1303.2
90 145 37.3 1302.2 146 38 1302.9
100 152 37.7 1302.2 164 38.3 1303


Figure 1 Relation of fiber coil loss and radiation dose.

Figure 2 Diagram of the IFOG radiation test.
JIN Jing, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2010) Vol.53 No.11 3059
Table 3 Parameters of experimental IFOG
Parameter Value Parameter Value
A (dB/km) 1.4 A
c
(dB) 18
n (A/W) 0.91 P
o
(uW) 180
I
d
(nA) 7 Av (Hz) 610
12

L (m) 450 (nm) 1302
D (mm) 50 R (kO) 800
Figure 3 displays the IFOG output versus radiation dose.
The precision degradation of IFOG with the radiation dose
increases nonlinearly. After dividing the IFOG output data
into stationary segments, Allan variance analysis was used
to calculate RWC of every segment. The calculation results
are shown in Figure 4 by solid line.
By substituting eqs. (2) and (12) into eq. (10), a model of
the relationship between RWC and radiation dose could be
built as

( )
( ) ( )
c
c c
2 2
10
10 10
o
o o
2 2 1 4
2
10
10 10
f
f f
d
A Lgd
A Lgd A Lgd
eI c e kT
RWC
LD
P
P R P

v
n
n n
+
+ +
= + + +
t A
| | | |
| |
\ . \ .
. (14)
RWC can be calculated from eq. (14) for any radiation dose
d using the value of g and f from eq. (12). As the PM fiber
coil used in the IFOG radiation test is the same parameters
as the PM fiber coil in components radiation test, the RWE
performance of the experimental IFOG in radiation envi-
ronments could be predicted by substituting the parameters
listed in Table 3, eq. (13) and radiation dose into eq. (14).
The predicted value of RWC is shown by the dash line in
Figure 4. The trends of two curves confirmed the RWC
prediction model in eq. (14).
Additionally, a novel RWC prediction model eq. (15)
could be developed by substituting eqs. (2) and (11) into eq.
(10), which can describe the effect of radiation dose and
dose rate on RWC.

( )
( ) ( )
c
c c
2 2
10
10 10
o
o o
2 2 1 4
2
10
10 10
b f
b f b f
d
A Lqr d
A Lqr d A Lqr d
eI c e kT
RWC
LD
P
P R P

v
n
n n
+
+ +
= + + +
t A
| | | |
| |
\ . \ .
. (15)
Three approaches can be taken to reduce the RWC deg-
radation owing to radiation-induced attenuation of the PM
fiber coil in IFOG [13, 14]:
(1) Methods of radiation shielding can reduce the total
radiation dose irradiated on the PM fiber coil.
(2) Protect fibers against radiation-induced attenuation
by utilizing photobleaching.
(3) PM fibers with pure silica core can be used to reduce
the radiation-induced attenuation of fiber.
4 Summary and conclusions
Known from eq. (10), IFOG RWC is mainly affected by
source power, source spectral bandwidth, all optical circuit
losses, detector dark current and responsivity. Owing to the
low power and wide spectral bandwidth of the SLD source,
shot noise makes a major contribution to RWE, and RWC is
the most sensitive to the change of source power and all
optical circuit losses.
We launched a
60
Co-gamma radiation test on the IFOG
components and closed-loop operational IFOG, which
showed that SLD source, detector, IOC, and coupler are
immune to radiation. However, the PM fiber coil, whose
loss is picked up with radiation dose, is the most sensitive to
irradiation. The radiation induced attenuation in fiber coil is
the most prior contribution of the IFOG RWE performance
degradation.

Figure 3 IFOG output under radiation. Figure 4 The measured value and predicted value of RWC vs. radiation dose.
3060 JIN Jing, et al. Sci China Tech Sci November (2010) Vol.53 No.11
Based on the IFOG SNR model and radiation induced
attenuation model of the PM fiber, the IFOG RWC predic-
tion model eqs. (14) and (15) were built and verified. The
variety of RWC with radiation dose and radiation dose rate
can be predicted by eqs. (14) and (15) after obtaining the
fiber-radiation sensitive parameters f, g, q, b.
The RWC prediction model can also be extended to the
utilization of high precision FOG.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 61007040).
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