Enhanced rotation sensing with high-order exceptional points in a multi-mode coupled-ring gyroscope

Exceptional points (EPs) of non-Hermitian systems are sensitive to perturbations and facilitate the development of highly sensitive gyroscopes. We propose a compact multi-mode optical gyroscope protocol that incorporates two coupled rings and exhibits a fourth-order EP, achieving higher sensitivity compared to gyroscopes based on second-order EPs. We show that the gyroscope sensitivity can be further improved by deviating from the fourth-order EP due to the gain dependence on the cavity intensity. Furthermore, our protocol exhibits resilience against backscattering from counter-propagating modes, which leads to a reduced angular random walk (ARW) factor and increased sensitivity. These features make our protocol highly promising for advancing high-performance optical gyroscopes and enhancing angular velocity sensing technologies.