Abstract

Basic asymmetric behavior is experimentally observed in a polished polarization-maintaining fiber coupler. As the two half-couplers are made to slide on top of each other, the output extinction ratio exhibits relatively large variations whose forms depend on the fiber that is selected for the input. We propose that a local distortion of the fiber birefringent axes, which could be caused by the half-coupler polishing process, can generate such features even when the launched light is perfectly polarized along a principal axis of the input fiber.

© 1990 Optical Society of America

Monomode-polarization-maintaining fiber directional couplers

Bimal K. Nayar and David R. Smith
Opt. Lett. 8(10) 543-545 (1983)

Analysis of mode coupling behavior in fused polarization-maintaining fiber couplers

Itaru Yokohama
Appl. Opt. 28(19) 4216-4225 (1989)

Polished-type couplers acting as polarizing beam splitters

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Performance of surface-plasma-wave fiber-optic polarizers

Michael N. Zervas and Ian P. Giles
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Birefringent-fiber polarization coupler

R. C. Youngquist, J. L. Brooks, and H. J. Shaw
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