Rigorous analysis of polarization dependence loss (PDL) for equilateral 3x3 fused fiber couplers
Journal
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
Journal Volume
16
Journal Issue
1
Pages
165-167
Date Issued
2004-01
Author(s)
H.-J. Ou
Abstract
A rigorous power coupling model for weakly fused 3/spl times/3 triangular fiber couplers is proposed to investigate the polarization-dependent loss (PDL) of the couplers. The accuracy of the power coupling model is checked by a comparison with the experimental results. The agreement between them is reasonably good. The effect of fabricating parameters of the coupler, fusion degree, and heated length on the PDL of the coupler is investigated by combining the Mueller matrix method into the proposed model. It is found that the fusion degree is the dominant factor to influence the PDL performance of the coupler. The PDL significantly increases as the coupler is fused in weakly fused condition and the fusion degree is suggested to be less than 0.95 for designing a low-PDL 3/spl times/3 coupler.
Type
journal article