Abstract

Polarization control is important for single-mode fiber systems because, although short lengths of specially fabricated polarization preserving birefringent fibers have been reported,¹ typical low-loss fibers do not maintain linear polarization.² The recently reported polarization independent switch³ and on-off modulator⁴ can be used with available single-mode fibers for many communications applications. However, for interferometric signal processing applications such as heterodyne detection or fiber sensing,⁵ a received signal with polarization identical to that of some fixed reference is required.

© 1981 Optical Society of America