Conventional PMF for Component

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Applications:

Laser pigtails

Polarization-sensitive components

Pigtails of various polarization-maintaining devices

Characteristics:

• Excellent polishing properties
• Excellent geometrical uniformity
• High stability and reliability
• Excellent polarization maintaining performance

 

Specification 2

Several parameters are useful when specifying or evaluating a PM fiber system:

Birefringence (Δn): the effective refractive-index difference between the two principal polarization modes.
Beat length: the distance required for a 2π relative phase accumulation between the two modes. Shorter beat length generally indicates stronger birefringence at the same wavelength.
Polarization extinction ratio (PER): a measure of how much optical power remains in the desired polarization relative to the orthogonal polarization. A higher PER indicates better polarization purity.
Polarization crosstalk: the amount of unwanted power coupled from the launched eigenaxis into the orthogonal eigenaxis.

Axis alignment: the rotational accuracy between the input polarization, the fiber axes, connector keying, and splice orientation.

These PM-specific measurements are different from general cable qualification tests such as attenuation, insertion loss, OTDR analysis, tensile testing, and environmental testing. Hengtong's overview of fiber-optic cable testing explains those broader optical and mechanical test categories.

PM fiber is used when uncontrolled polarization drift would reduce measurement accuracy, interfere with modulation, or destabilize an optical system. Typical applications include fiber-optic gyroscopes, interferometric sensors, coherent optical systems, laser delivery, fiber lasers, and polarization-sensitive test equipment.

In many of these systems, choosing the fiber is only one part of the design. The complete optical path must also preserve axis orientation through pigtails, connectors, splices, couplers, and other components.