generalized-sagnac.pdf (315.7 KB)
Generalized Sagnac Effect
Ruyong Wang, Yi Zheng, and Aiping Yao
St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301, USA
(Received 18 March 2004; published 27 September 2004)
Experiments were conducted to study light propagation in a light waveguide loop consisting of linearly and circularly moving segments. We found that any segment of the loop contributes to the total phase difference between two counterpropagating light beams in the loop. […] The finding includes the Sagnac effect of rotation as a special case and suggests a new fiber optic sensor for measuring linear motion with nanoscale sensitivity.