Spectral-domain measurement of chromatic dispersion difference of polarization modes in polarization-maintaining fibers

Abstract

A spectral white-light interferometric (WLI) technique for measuring the chromatic dispersion difference of the two polarization eigenmodes in polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs) is presented. The approach is based on the application of a transverse point-like force on the fiber that causes coupling between the two modes and utilizes their spectral interferogram. A Fourier-transform spectral interferogram (FTSI) and a polynomial curve fitting are applied to obtain the phase function. The chromatic dispersion difference of the long PMFs can be obtained by taking the second derivative of the phase function. The experimental results for two kinds of PMFs of 110 and 750 m length are presented, respectively.

Keywords:

• fiber measurements
• interferometry
• birefringence
• chromatic dispersion difference
• polarization-maintaining fibers

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program No. 2010CB327806). The authors thank the reviewers for their valuable comments.