Abstract
Direct measurement of the ultimate limit of the polarization cross talk of the birefringent fibers caused by anisotropic Rayleigh scattering (ARS) is presented theoretically and experimentally by using polarization optical time-domain reflectometry (POTDR). With POTDR, ARS appears as the bias existing in the backscattered power ratio between the cross-coupled and excited modes. A value twice that of the bias corresponds to the depolarization ratio representing the anisotropy of the fiber core material. The biases measured by birefringent polarization-maintaining fibers are all within 3% of the mean value 0.048.
© 1986 Optical Society of America
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