Polarimetric fiber optic sensors with partially polarized laser sources

Abstract

The degree of light polarization propagating in a birefringent optical fiber diminishes along the propagating distance. This effect is of particular interest in optoelectronics since the quasi-monochromatic semiconductor sources are not perfectly coherent. Therefore, measurement of the degree of polarization of light propagating along the fiber can be directly applied to determine the coherence characteristics of laser diodes. The issue concerns also applications in polarimetric sensing with birefringence fibers. The paper analyzes the problem of polarization's degree fading in polarimetric fiber optic sensors in view of optimizing the performance of real polarimetric sensors with highly birefringent fibers. The influence of degree of polarization of partially polarized light passing through highly birefringent optical fiber on metrological parameters of polarimetric sensors is presented.