PMD fundamentals: Polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

J. P. Gordon and
H. Kogelnik‡

Crawford Hill Laboratory, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Box 400, Holmdel, NJ 07733

Contributed by H. Kogelnik

Abstract

This paper reviews the fundamental concepts and basic theory of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical fibers. It introduces a unified notation and methodology to link the various views and concepts in Jones space and Stokes space. The discussion includes the relation between Jones vectors and Stokes vectors, rotation matrices, the definition and representation of PMD vectors, the laws of infinitesimal rotation, and the rules for PMD vector concatenation.

Footnotes

↵ ‡ To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: herwig{at}lucent.com.
Abbreviations:

PMD,

polarization mode dispersion;

3-D and 2-D,

three- and two-dimensional;

PSP,

principal state of polarization;

DGD,

differential group delay