Abstract

Piezoelectric fibre-optic phase modulators (1) have found wide application in fibre-optic interferometric sensors. In particular PZT tubes around which fibre is wrapped have been utilized in numerous sensor systems, eg. Mach Zehnder interferometers (2) and Sagnac gyroscopes (3), to achieve signal processing. Despite the wide application of this component little effort has been placed into a detailed study of its operation. Experimental results indicate an unexpectedly complex and rich behaviour including subharmonic formation, propagation to chaos, and hysteresis, when the device is operated under normal conditions.

© 1986 Optical Society of America