Patent ID: 8085407

Claim:
A method for reducing modulator intensity modulation-induced bias error in a resonator optical gyroscope, the method comprising: a. determining a set of phase modulation amplitudes where a Bessel function J1(M) of a sinusoidal phase modulation of an input light beam equals approximately zero, the determination based on parameters of the resonator optical gyroscope; b. selecting a phase modulation amplitude M from the set of phase modulation amplitudes; c. applying the selected phase modulation amplitude to the input light, thus reducing the intensity modulation-induced bias error; d. generating a response from a demodulated first harmonic signal of the resonator output light based on at least one of a plurality of gyro parameter values and the selected phase modulation amplitude; e. determining a phase modulation frequency that maximizes the generated response; and f. applying the selected phase modulation amplitude and frequency to the input light of the resonator gyro, thus reducing the intensity modulation-induced bias error and increasing the gyro rate measurement sensitivity.