Abstract
We describe a first distributed polarization analysis (DPA) system using binary polarization rotators in an optical frequency domain reflectormeter (OFDR) capable of measuring the variations of polarization states along a single-mode fiber (SMF). We demonstrate using such a DPA system to accurately measure the distance-resolved birefringence with 12 fiber loops of different radii with different birefringence values along a length of SMF and obtain a bending-induced birefringence coefficient (BBC) of 6.601 × 10-10 m2, agreeing well with the theoretically estimated value of 5.334 × 10-10 m2. To further verify the measurement accuracy, we obtain the birefringence values of the 12 fiber loops of different radii one at a time using a non-distributed polarization analysis system with an accuracy traceable to a birefringence standard made with a quartz crystal, and obtain a BBC value of 6.490 × 10-10 m2, agreeing well with our distributed measurement with a relative error of only 1.68%. In addition, we measure the residual birefringence of the SMF with both distributed and non-distributed polarization analysis systems and obtain similar results with a relative error of only 0.59%. Our experiments not only validate the performances of our DPA system, but also the first to use DPA to experimentally obtain the accurate birefringence values along the SMF and verify the theory of bending-induced birefringence. Our work further proves that such an OFDR-based DPA system is a practical tool for optical component characterization, nondestructive optical material inspection, and distributed fiber optic transversal stress sensing.
Highlights
Accurate polarization analysis is important both for scientific research for understanding the optical properties of different matters [1,2,3,4] and for applications in fiber optic communication and sensing systems [5,6,7,8,9]
In this work we describe a novel distributed polarization analysis (DPA) system incorporating the same type polarization state generator (PSG) and polarization state analyzer (PSA) made with binary MO polarization rotators [34,35] in an optical frequency domain reflectormeter (OFDR) system
We anticipate that the proposed DPA technique and the corresponding polarization analyzing OFDR (PA-OFDR) system will find useful applications in optical component characterization, nondestructive optical material inspection, as well as in distributed transversal stress sensing with high spatial resolution and accuracy
Summary
Accurate polarization analysis is important both for scientific research for understanding the optical properties of different matters [1,2,3,4] and for applications in fiber optic communication and sensing systems [5,6,7,8,9]. Most polarization analysis systems can only measure the accumulative polarization effects of a matter on an optical beam, such as the changes in the state of polarization (SOP) and the degree of polarization (DOP) after it passes through the whole length of the matter, and can only help to obtain the average polarization properties of the matter, such as those characterized by parameters of birefringence, diattenuation, or photo-elasticity Because such parameters are vectors or even tensors with varying orientations along the optical path, the “average” cannot be used to infer the local values of the parameters. We anticipate that the proposed DPA technique and the corresponding PA-OFDR system will find useful applications in optical component characterization, nondestructive optical material inspection, as well as in distributed transversal stress sensing with high spatial resolution and accuracy
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