Polarization-maintaining fibers and their applications

Polarization-maintaining fibers and their applications are reviewed. The classification of high-birefringent fibers and low-birefringent fibers and their fabrication methods and characteristics are discussed in Section II. Analytical methods and numerical methods for fiber design on the birefringence are presented in Section III. Degradation factors of polarization maintenance expressed as crosstalk or mode-coupling parameters caused by internal origins such as structural imperfections, wavelength, and nonlinear effects, and by external origins such as temperature fluctuations, mechanical perturbations, and electromagnetic effects, are discussed in Section IV. Characterization methods on beat length, mode coupling, stress distribution, and mechanical strength are presented in Section V. Applications to the fiber devices and nonlinear effects, and splicing methods for the polarization-maintaining fibers are described in Sections VI and VII.