Abstract

The technique of polarization-optical time-domain reflectometry is analyzed to see how the polarization properties of an optical fiber may be deduced from the backscattered light. It is shown that, subject to certain assumptions, the polarization is modified as it would be by a linear retarder. The results of measurements on a fiber showing both linear and circular retardation are given and compared with a theoretical model. The experiments show that the accuracy of measurement is limited by changes in the polarization, due to the scattering process, which vary randomly along the fiber.

© 1982 Optical Society of America

Polarization-optical time domain reflectometry: a technique for the measurement of field distributions

A. J. Rogers
Appl. Opt. 20(6) 1060-1074 (1981)

Analytical description of backscattered states of polarization in polarization optical time-domain reflectometry measurements on uniformly twisted linearly birefringent optical fiber

D. H. O. Bebbington and A. S. Siddiqui
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 17(12) 2260-2266 (2000)

Method to measure the second-order birefringence vector distribution along optical fibers based on high-speed polarization optical time domain reflectometry

Chao Shang, Chongqing Wu, Zhi Wang, Yongjun Wang, Jian Wang, Zhengyong Li, and Shuangshou Yang
Appl. Opt. 51(14) 2548-2553 (2012)

Simplex coded polarization optical time domain reflectometry system

Chaodong Wang, Ruolin Liao, Wenbo Chen, Ming Tang, Songnian Fu, Jianguan Tang, Ciming Zhou, and Deming Liu
Opt. Express 25(5) 5550-5558 (2017)

Analyses of optical time-domain reflectometry for single-mode fibers and of polarization optical time-domain reflectometry for polarization-maintaining fibers

Masataka Nakazawa, Masamitsu Tokuda, and Naoya Uchida
Opt. Lett. 8(2) 130-132 (1983)