Novel Measurement Method of PMD in Single Mode Fiber based on Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry Technique

摘要

Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) is a serious limiting factor for high bit rate optical telecommunication systems. It is important and necessary for network managers to obtain PMD information at single end of the fiber cable. In this paper, a novel measurement method of PMD in optical fibers and devices is proposed, which is based on coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry technique (OFDR). In the method, a frequency-shifted feedback (FSF) fiber laser is developed as light source; therefore a frequency chirped probe light with good linearity, wide chirp range, and high chirp rate is realized. The PMD is determined by self-delayed heterodyne detection from the beat frequency generated by interference between lights from the Fresnel reflection at the far end of the device under test, which makes the measurement at single end of the device possible. Experiment is demonstrated on both polarization maintaining fibers (PMF) and single mode fibers (SMF), and results are in agreement with interferometric method.