Abstract

We report on two fully-fiberized, input polarization independent depolarizer configurations that do not need any alignment once fabricated. This makes them suitable for real-world applications. The first configuration uses polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers and relatively few components. The second configuration uses standard (non-PM) single mode fibers to introduce the large time delays needed to enable narrow-linewidth signal depolarization, albeit at the cost of a slightly increased component count and insertion loss. We theoretically analyze the depolarization performance of the proposed configurations as a function of various depolarizer parameters. Subsequently, we design the depolarizers considering the imperfections of standard commercially available components. Finally, we fabricate prototypes of both configurations, characterize their depolarization performance using sources of variable linewidth, and compare the experimental results with theoretical analysis. The fabricated depolarizers are shown to be capable of the depolarization of 20 MHz and 1 MHz linewidth signals with residual degree of polarization below 4%.

© 2018 IEEE

Design of an InGaAsP/InP compact integrated optical depolarizer

Marwa Ragheb, Hatem Elrefaei, Diaa Khalil, and Omar A. Omar
Appl. Opt. 54(30) 9017-9024 (2015)

Passive single-mode fiber depolarizer

Paisheng Shen and Joseph C. Palais
Appl. Opt. 38(9) 1686-1691 (1999)

Quasi-monochromatic fiber depolarizer and its application to polarization-dependent loss measurement

H. Dong, J. Q. Zhou, M. Yan, P. Shum, L. Ma, Y. D. Gong, and C. Q. Wu
Opt. Lett. 31(7) 876-878 (2006)

Theory of a tunable fiber ring depolarizer theory

Massimo Martinelli and Joseph C. Palais
Appl. Opt. 40(18) 3014-3018 (2001)

High power narrow-linewidth linearly-polarized 1610 nm Er:Yb all-fiber MOPA

Eisuke Fujita, Yutaka Mashiko, Seira Asaya, Mitsuru Musha, and Masaki Tokurakawa
Opt. Express 24(23) 26255-26260 (2016)