Jonathan Wheeler on Fiber Optic Gyroscopes

eigen* colloquium series | Friday, October 3, 12:30 EDT, Haughey Hall 133

Jonathan Wheeler is the speaker for this week's eigen* colloquium series, held on Friday, October 1, at 12:30 EDT in Haughey Hall 133.

Fiber optic gyroscopes (FOGs) are a well-established widely deployed sensor used to measure rotation rates. They are typically found in high-performance vehicles including aircraft, submarines, and spacecraft (including the Mars Rover). Conventional FOGs require highly incoherent optical sources (such as erbium-doped fiber sources) to achieve high levels of accuracy, but the erbium-doped fiber sources used in most FOGs have fundamental physical limits that limit the SNR and stability of a device. My PhD studies ways to overcome these limits by using a new type of optical source, namely a stable laser whose temporal coherence we intentionally destroy with high-speed random phase modulation.

Jonathan Wheeler attended Andrews University from 2011-2016, where he earned a BS in Physics and Mathematical Studies, and a BSE in Engineering. He is currently working towards a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He is married to Mateja Wheeler, and they are expecting a baby boy mid October.