Abstract

Polarization-maintaining optical fibers (PMFs), which maintain a state of polarization over a long length, have many applications from coherent transmission systems to fiber-optic sensors.¹·² For putting PMFs into practical use, PMFs must be easily spliced with a low loss and low crosstalk. When a usual splicing technique is used for PMFs a polarized light power monitoring is required for polarization axis matching. However, it would be hard to apply this technique to an installed PMF cable. If the monitored polarized light power is unstable, high-quality splicing of PMF becomes difficult.

© 1988 Optical Society of America