The purpose of this work was to build an optical setup to measure stresses in optical fibers and all-fiber devices. This kind of measurement is desirable since residual stresses affect mechanical and optical properties of glass.; The measurements rely on photoelasticity. Polarized laser light phase retardation measurements of the glass under specific conditions illustrate its stress profile. The theoretical basis of this reconstruction from phase projections in axis-symmetric and non axis-symmetric specimens is also addressed.; Design of the experimental setup is explained and a new phase retardation measurement scheme (considered novel) with a Pockel cell is developed. The precision of the system is now limited by the quality of the laser beam and its stability. The incertitude on phase measurement is 5 × 10 −4 rad. This should resolve stress variation of ±1 MPa in a fiber.; Finally, experimental results demonstrate setup capability. This includes measurements on axis symmetric fibers and one non axis-symmetric PM fibers reconstruction.
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