Polarization-Mode Dispersion Measurement in a System With Polarization-Dependent Loss or Gain

Polarization effects in aerial fibers

“…This quantity is usually measured by launching three known polarizations, at two neighboring wavelengths, into a fiber and measuring the output Stokes vectors. Through some mathematical transforms (see [16] for details) the PMD vector can be calculated.…”

“…The measurement consisted of launching three different polarization states and wavelength scanning from 1530 to 1590 nm at 1968 discrete wavelengths. The equation of motion method [16] was used to find the PMD vector. Figure 7a shows the ACF of the normalized real part of the PMD vector (directional correlation).…”

Polarization mode dispersion vectors measurement in optical fibers

“…The second category is based on the analysis of the transmission matrices, including Jones matrix eigenanalysis method, Mueller matrix method and generalized Mueller matrix method. The measurement methods in the first category do not require the knowledge of input polarization states, so only a polarization controller (PC) is needed to change the input polarization states [4] [7]. However, these measurement methods suffer from high noise due to high-precision demand in setting up the frequencies with a very small step size as required by differentiation [6].…”

“…In an optical fiber system with both birefringence and polarization-dependent loss or gain (PDL/G), two PSPs are not orthogonal, so PMD has to be fully described by a complex PMD vector Λ + Ω = r r r i W , which include two real vectors Ω r and Λ r [3]. The derivatives of these vectors with respect to optical frequency are defined as the second-order PMD effect, which also be described by a real or complex vector [4]. Although many techniques can measure its magnitude, PMD vector measurement has to be implemented in optical frequency domain.…”

“…In the case of no PDL/G, the Poincaré sphere technique (PST) investigates the rotation of output states of polarization (SOP) on Poincaré sphere to calculate the PMD vector [5]; C.D.Poole also presented an equation to describe Ω r with two different output SOPs and their derivatives with respect to optical frequency [2]; Mueller matrix method (MMM) uses large rotation angles to attain low-noise and high-resolution PMD data based on the property of Mueller matrix [6]. In the case with PDL/G, the generalized PST [4] and the complex plane method [7] measure and calculate Ω r and Λ r from output SOPs and their derivatives in Stokes space and Jones space, respectively; Jones matrix eigenanalysis (JME) method [8] can measure the DGD and two nonorthogonal PSPs based on the property of Jones matrix; Generalized MMM (GMMM) also can use large rotation angles to attain lownoise and high-resolution PMD data in a fiber link with PDL/G [9]. In principle, all methods suitable to the case with PDL/G can be used to measure an optical fiber system without PDL/G.…”