Abstract

In long-haul links, the simultaneous presence of Group Velocity Dispersion (GVD), Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) [1], Kerr effect and Amplifier Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise of the in-line optical amplifiers can induce severe light distortion. In particular, the light depolarization can be affected. This is an important issue for systems based upon Polarization Modulation (PM) [2]. The evolution of polarization in long-haul soliton-based systems has been already investigated [2]. A single soliton changes its polarization state during propagation, but it always preserves a definite state of polarization along its pulse shape. In this work, we investigate the properties of the polarization evolution of Non Return to Zero (NRZ) pulses in the presence of PMD, Kerr effect and ASE noise of the in-line amplifiers, in the propagation regime of low GVD.

© 1995 Optical Society of America