Title :
Reflectometric measurements of polarization properties in optical-fiber links
Author :
Galtarossa, Andrea ; Palmieri, Luca
Author_Institution :
Univ. di Padova, Italy
Abstract :
Polarization sensitive reflectometric measurements are effective tools for the characterization of polarization properties of optical-fiber links. These techniques show two advantages compared with the standard ones: they can perform measurements using only one fiber end (both for transmission and for reception of the probe signal) and, most important, they can characterize the local evolution of the polarization properties of the fiber link. Reflectometric measurements of differential group delay and fiber birefringence have been already successfully performed. More recently, the possibility of measuring, also, polarization dependent loss has been theoretically explored. In this paper the theory and main applications of polarization sensitive reflectometric techniques are reviewed.
Keywords :
birefringence; optical fibre dispersion; optical fibre losses; optical fibre polarisation; optical fibre testing; optical fibre theory; optical time-domain reflectometry; PDL; PMD; differential group delay; fiber birefringence; optical-fiber link reflectometric measurements; optical-fiber polarization properties; polarization dependent loss; polarization mode dispersion; polarization sensitive reflectometric techniques; probe signal transmission/reception; single fiber end measurements; time domain optical reflectometry; Birefringence; Delay; Loss measurement; Measurement standards; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fiber theory; Optical polarization; Optical sensors; Performance evaluation; Probes;
Journal_Title :
Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TIM.2003.821505