Nonlinear polarization-mode dispersion

Nonlinear effect of polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) will become important in future transoceanic optical networks and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical path networks with optical amplifier repeaters. The nonlinear variation of transfer function matrix due to optical Kerr effect is very important because the birefringence of a very long transmission line varies sufficiently as accumulation of self-phase modulation and cross-phase modulation between the orthogonally polarized propagation modes. This situation seems analogous to a nonlinear Fabry-Perot resonator with very large single-path phase-shift. In this report, we measure the nonlinear variation of optical transfer function matrices using an optical network analyzer. The nonlinear variation of the transfer function matrix makes it possible to calculate nonlinear PMD