Patent ID: 8497994

Claim:
A fiber optic interferometer comprising; a light source ( 100 ) that provides a source light wave; a light wave splitter ( 502 ) that splits said source light wave into first and second light waves; and optical means for introducing said first and second light waves to travel along an optical loop path ( 500 , 508 ) and exit therefrom, wherein said optical loop path ( 500 , 508 ) is provided by a wound optical fiber coil that forms a loop of one or more turns about a reference axis passing therethrough, and said optical fiber coil ( 500 ) is constructed from a multicore optical fiber establishing two or more optical waveguide cores, where each waveguide core has respective first and second terminating ends selectively optically coupled to each other such that said first and second light waves may travel in opposite directions along an identical optical loop path through each of said two or more waveguide cores before exiting said optical loop path.