Single-polarisation operation of highly birefringent bow-tie optical fibres

Abstract

Experimental results show that bow-tie fibres with high levels of stress-induced birefringence can be operated such that they support only a single linearly polarised mode. Under these conditions the loss of the fibre is 5 dB/km for the guided mode and 55 dB/km for the suppressed mode For short-length operation as a polariser, extinction ratios as high as 50 dB/m have been obtained.