Abstract
The bandwidth in which the first-order approximation of the principal states of polarization of a single-mode fiber can be assumed valid is examined. The principal states of polarization and their bandwidth are found for a fiber with both constant coupling and birefringence, and the relationship with the fiber’s eigenmodes is examined. On the basis of these results, a fiber cascade is analyzed, and a Monte Carlo simulation provides theoretical values of the bandwidth that have been experimentally verified on a 2-km-long concatenation of single-mode dispersion-shifted fibers.
© 1991 Optical Society of America
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