Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Artificially Disordered Birefringent Optical Fibers, Sumudu Herath, N. P. Puente, Elena I. Chaikina, Alexey Yamilov

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We develop and experimentally verify a theory of evolution of polarization in artificially-disordered multi-mode optical fibers. Starting with a microscopic model of photo-induced index change, we obtain the first and second order statistics of the dielectric tensor in a Ge-doped fiber, where a volume disorder is intentionally inscribed via UV radiation transmitted through a diffuser. A hybrid coupled-power & coupled-mode theory is developed to describe the transient process of de-polarization of light launched into such a fiber. After certain characteristic distance, the power is predicted to be equally distributed over all co-propagating modes of the fiber regardless of their polarization. …