Principal state vector autocorrelation in a fiber optic system having both polarization-mode dispersion and polarization-dependent loss

Abstract

A combination of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization dependent loss (PDL) in a fiber optic system will lead to a complex principal state vector. We report the autocorrelation function (ACF) for such a complex principal state vector. It is shown that the correlation bandwidth decreases with the increasing PDL.

Effect of local PMD and PDL directional correlation on the principal state of polarization vector autocorrelation

“…These are the main results of this work. They agree with the published result [3] when one takes <α •β >= 0, and it also agrees with the result [5] when one takes <α •β >= 1. It is interesting to note the fact that PMD and PDL polarization directional correlation is nonzero and can be linked with the finite values of the cross autocorrelation between the real and imaginary parts of the PSP vector.…”

“…They showed that the combination of PMD and PDL will lead to a complex principal state vector. The autocorrelation function for such a complex principal state vector has been reported by several groups [3,4,5]. However, those calculations either assume a zero correlation between local PMD and PDL polarization directional [3] or strong correlation [4,5].…”

“…• means the average over statistical fluctuations of the PMD and PDL element. However, before we go any further we would like to mention the main object of this work, namely the local correlation <α j •β j > between the PMD unit vector β j and the PDL unit vectorα j , could be neither zero [3] nor ±1 [4,5]. In what follows we will assume a general local correlation between the PMD and PDL polarization directions.…”