Novel polarization scrambling OSNR monitor

摘要

A novel polarization scrambling optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) monitor has been proposed and demonstrated. The OSNR monitor consists of a polarization scrambler, a polarizer and a photodetector. When the channel signal input to the polarizer is a linear polarization state aligned parallel (orthogonal) to the polarizer the output reaches its maximum (minimum). The OSNR can be obtained from the measured maximum and minimum of the output power if the sampling time is long enough to ensure a good coverage on Poincare sphere. The effects of polarizer extinction ratio and sampling time on the accuracy have been discussed.