Chromatic dispersion measurement by white-light interferometry on metre-length single-mode optical fibres

Chromatic dispersion near 0.8 ¿m in a short (~1 m) single-mode optical fibre is determined by a white-light interferometric technique. In particular, the wavelength-dependent group delay of the fibre is obtained directly from the spectra of the output light from a Mach-Zehnder interferometer illuminated by a GaAlAs LED. Its application in single-mode fibre studies in the 1.3 ¿m wavelength region is discussed.