Polarization mode dispersion measurement using a Sagnac interferometer and a comparison with the fixed analyzer method

Author

Olsson, Bengt-Erik ; Karlsson, Magnus ; Andrekson, Peter A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Optoelectron. & Electr. Meas., Chalmers Univ. of Technol., Goteborg, Sweden

Volume

10

Issue

7

fYear

1998

fDate

7/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

997

Lastpage

999

Abstract

Polarization mode dispersion measurement using a Sagnac interferometer is compared with the well-known fixed analyzer technique both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that in the case of weak mode coupling in the fiber the Sagnac interferometer method is equivalent to the fixed analyzer method but gives better readability of the measured optical spectrum. For strong mode coupling, we develop a theory that relates the differential group delay to the number of mean-level crossings in the measured spectrum.

Keywords

birefringence; light interferometry; optical fibre communication; optical fibre dispersion; optical fibre polarisation; optical fibre testing; optical fibre theory; Sagnac interferometer; differential group delay; fixed analyzer method; mean-level crossings; measured optical spectrum; measured spectrum; optical fibre dispersion; optical fibre testing; polarization mode dispersion measurement; readability; strong mode coupling; weak mode coupling; well-known fixed analyzer technique; Birefringence; Erbium-doped fiber amplifier; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fiber theory; Optical interferometry; Optical scattering; Polarization mode dispersion; Sagnac interferometers; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.681296

Filename

681296