Sensing rotation has been an essential topic in navigation and many other applications. Gyroscopes based on propagation of light beams over fixed distances have gained interest with the development of the laser. Since the 1970s, with the development of fiber optics these laser based gyroscopes have developed into compact devices, which can fit in the palm of your hand. In this thesis, we describe and analyze the development of a fiber-optic gyroscope. Fiber optic gyroscopes (also called fiber gyro or FOG) have been under development for different types of applications for more than 30 years all around the world. The physical basis of the fiber gyro is the Sagnac effect that was discovered in the early 1900s and is named after its discoverer. In this work, we first explain the principle of operation of the Sagnac effect and we derive the fundamental formulations in order to have an analytical understanding of the theory. Then, we examine the fiber optic gyro configuration component by component, starting with the laser diode pumped broadband light emitting Erbium-doped superfluorescent source. In addition, the principle of phase modulation, electro-optic phase modulators, fiber optic cables and fiber winding techniques, such as quadrupolar winding is explained within the context of development of the FOG. v The FOG that was assembled was based on circulation and sensing of broadband light centered around 1550nm. The fiber coil was 5km long in order to increase sensitivity in the FOG device. Since single-mode fibers were used steps were taken to ensure successful operation even with polarization dependent errors. The constructed system demonstrated a low sensitivity with a large uncertainty while sensing typical rotation rates. Reasons behind the errors and low sensitivity, as well as improvements that can be made are discussed.

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