Enhancement of birefringence in polarisation-maintaining fibres by thermal annealing

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© The Institution of Electrical Engineers
Published 21/07/2012

Abstract

The thermal behaviour of highly birefringent polarisation-maintaining optical fibres is studied, and the thermal hysteresis of the birefringence is related to the quenching of the fibre. Suitable ‘on-line’ thermal annealing during fibre drawing is shown to be a method for the full development of the high anisotropic stresses potentially available in high birefringence structures using borosilicate stress-producing parts.

Inspec keywords: annealing; optical fibres; light polarisation; birefringence; borosilicate glasses; drawing (mechanical)

Other keywords: thermal behaviour; anisotropic stresses; fibre drawing; thermal hysteresis; borosilicate stress-producing parts; thermal annealing; birefringent polarisation-maintaining optical fibres; quenching

Subjects: Fibre optics; Other heat and thermomechanical treatments; Optical waveguides and couplers; Optical propagation and transmission in homogeneous and anisotropic media; birefringence

References

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      • Katsuyama, T., Matsumura, H., Suganuma, T.: `Low-loss single-polarisation fibres', IEEE Trans., 1981, 17, p. 473-474
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    4. 4)
      • Barlow, A.J., Payne, D.N.: `Measurement of fibre polarisation properties using a photo-elastic modulator', Technical Digest of Symposium on optical fibre measurements, 1982, p. 101–104
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