Measuring dispersion between two modes of an optical fibre using low-coherence spectral interferometry with a Michelson interferometer

Abstract

It is demonstrated experimentally that even if the spectral interference between two modes of an optical fibre excited by a low-coherence source is not resolved at its output by a spectrometer of a given resolving power, it is resolved in the Michelson interferometer configuration. In a tandem configuration of a dispersive Michelson interferometer and a two-mode optical fibre, the optical path difference (OPD) in the interferometer is adjusted close to the group OPD between modes to produce a low-frequency spectral modulation that can be processed. Thus, using the Fourier-transform method in processing the measured spectral modulations and subtracting the effect of the dispersive Michelson interferometer, the wavelength dependence of the group OPD between two modes of the optical fibre over a limited spectral region is obtained.