Noboru Kawakami

Ultralow-crosstalk splicing of polarization-maintaining optical fibers by a local end-image monitoring technique

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.

Fabrication of 1.55-μm dispersion-shifted polarization-maintaining optical fiber

Polarization-maintaining optical fiber (PMF), which maintains a state of polarization over a long length, has many applications from coherent transmission systems to fiber-optic sensors. Especially, in a long coherent transmission system, it is necessary that a PMF have low loss and low dispersion in the 1.55-µm wavelength region.1