Combined impacts of group velocity dispersion, Kerr effect and polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

Abstract

This paper is contributed to discuss the impacts of group velocity dispersion, nonlinear Kerr effect and polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers . Using split-step Fourier method, we first analytically analyze that the interaction of Kerr effect and polarization mode dispersion results in the pulse asymmetric spectra. Then we study that polarization mode dispersion and group velocity dispersion play their roles independently, and that, depending on the relative magnitudes, the two factors affect the pulse differently. Finally, we research the combined impacts of group velocity dispersion, Kerr effect and polarization mode dispersion. Detailed investigation reveals that the combined effects are different in anomalous and normal group velocity dispersion regime. We point out that increased Kerr effect can suppress the impact of polarization mode dispersion in anomalous chromatic dispersion regime, and that, for the given values of incident power and polarization mode dispersion, anomalous group velocity should be large enough for the polarization mode dispersion to be effectively suppressed by the Kerr effect.