The Centenary of Sagnac Effect and Its Applications: from Electromagnetic to Matter Waves

摘要

G. Sagnac published in 1913 the first experimental observation of the effect of a rotation on the fringe phase shift in an optical interferometer. His discovery has stimulated a century long debate on its meaning and interpretation, and reveals nowadays, 100 years later, that his observations are universal and exist for any kind of waves, from optical (or electromagnetic) waves to the most recently used matter-waves. With the breakthrough in the discovery of lasers, and lately the discovery of ultra cold atoms, rotation sensors using the Sagnac effect are nowadays reaching the best levels in precision inertial measurement and are currently at the heart of the navigation systems, and could even be used in the future to study precisely the rotation of the earth or to set the frontiers of general relativity.