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Polarization dispersion in single-mode fiber that contains arbitrary birefringence is described through a vector differential equation. Monte-Carlo simulations using this equation show good agreement with experimental measurements in a randomly birefringent fiber and with a previously reported analytic expression for the length dependence of the dispersion. We also correct an error made in earlier research and show that the probability density function for the magnitude of the dispersion at long lengths is Maxwellian rather than Gaussian as previously reported.

We show experimentally the trapping of orthogonally polarized solitons in birefringent optical fibers with polarization dispersions as high as 90 psec/km. Solitons along two axes of a fiber compensate for the polarization dispersion by shifting their frequencies, and we observe frequency splitting up to 1.03 THz for a polarization dispersion of 80 psec/km. For a 20-m fiber the energy required to compensate for the polarization dispersion is ~84 pJ, and for a 76m fiber the energy required reduces to ~64 pJ.