Stress-Induced Birefringence in All-Fiber White-Light Interferometers

✍ Scribed by Yiwu Tang; Yanbiao Liao

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 301 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1068-5200
• DOI: 10.1006/ofte.1998.0258

✦ Synopsis

The phenomenon of the interference pattern splitting in an all-fiber white-light interferometer is investigated. It is found that the interference pattern will change its amplitude and shape as the fiber which forms the optical path is subjected to tension, bending, or torsion. This leads to the interference pattern fading and deteriorates the zero-order fringe identification. An explanation based on the stress-induced birefringence is presented with numerical simulation results. It is shown that the periodic change in the amplitude and shape results from the periodically changed phase difference between the two orthogonal LP modes in the presence of external loads.