An analytical formula for the mean differential group delay of randomly birefringent spun fibers

Abstract

Polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) is a serious impairment for high-bit-rate optical telecommunication systems. It is known that spinning the fiber during the drawing process drastically reduces the PMD. However, the analysis of pulse propagation through a randomly birefringent spun fiber is still at an early stage. In this paper, we derive an analytical formula for the mean differential group delay of a periodically spun fiber with random birefringence. We model the birefringence with fixed modulus and a random orientation under the condition that the spin period is shorter than the beat length. Finally, we numerically compare the analytical results with those given by the random-modulus model of birefringence, and we obtain good agreement as long as the short-period assumption is satisfied.