TIA TIA-455-198

ALSO SEE NECA NEIS 301

This procedure can be applied to any single-mode passivecomponent, including connectors, splices, couplers, attenuators,isolators, switches, multiplexers and demultiplexers, opticalamplifiers (non-operating), circulators and filters. It is used tomeasure the total range of insertion loss as PDL due to changes inpolarization of the launch state. For branching devices, it canalso be used to measure the total range of coupling ratio. Itcannot be used to measure polarization-maintaining components or tomeasure the polarization dependence of return loss nor is thismethod applicable to measuring the polarization dependence ofhigher order attributes such as center wavelength and bandwidth offilters. This procedure could be uses to measure the polarizationdependence of non-diagonal transmission coefficients, e.g.wavelength isolation and directivity.

This method differs form that described in FOTP-157, which isbased on manipulation of the state of polarization of light eithercontinuously or in small increments in order to measure maxima andminima of the attenuation of transmitted light. This methodinvolves the measurement of the behavior of Specimen whenilluminated by a small set of well-defined states of polarizationof input light. These measurements are followed by a matrixcalculation to determine the polarization dependent loss (PDL) ofthe Specimen. It may be considered an efficient alternative toFOTP-157 when a result is required form a small, discrete number ofmeasurements, such as in automated testing.

Generally, PDL techniques based on matrix methods fall into twocategories, i.e. those based on Muller calculus (hereafter referredto as Mueller/Stokes methods) and those based on the Jonescalculus. While the two techniques are mathematically equivalentfor completely polarized light and is therefore to be considered tobe more general. In addition, methods based on the Jones matrixgenerally require known polarization states on both input andoutput while the Mueller/Stokes methods require only known inputstates. Precise prior characterization of the input states isrequired in either case.

Edition:

02

Published:

12/01/2002

Number of Pages:

24