Distributed phase birefringence measurements based on polarization correlation in phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometers

• DOI: 10.1364/oe.23.024923
• Publication Date: 2015-09-14T14:43:44Z
• Authors: Marcelo A. Soto; Xin Lu; Hugo F. Martins; Miguel Gonzalez-H...; Luc Thévenaz
• Keywords: Optical correlation; Reflectometry

In this paper a technique to measure the distributed birefringence profile along optical fibers is proposed and experimentally validated.The method based on spectral correlation between two sets of orthogonally-polarized measurements acquired using phase-sensitive time-domain reflectometer (φOTDR).The measured spectra gives resonance (correlation) peak at frequency detuning that proportional local refractive index difference orthogonal polarization axes fiber.In way enables phase any position fibers, so longitudinal fluctuation can be precisely evaluated with metric spatial resolution.The has been validated by measuring low high birefringence, such as standard single-mode well conventional polarizationmaintaining fibers.The potential applications in characterization for telecommunications fiber sensing.