Measurement of depolarization and scaling associated with second-order polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

Abstract
The Muller matrix method enables the low-noise, high-resolution measurement of second-order polarization-mode-dispersion (PMD) depolarization and related parameters required for systems modeling. We report experimental observations of second-order PMD statistical dependencies and scaling for fibers with mean differential group delay (DGD) ranging from 1.3 to 17.0 ps. Measurements of 10 different fibers confirm that the depolarization scales with the mean DGD while the polarization-dependent chromatic dispersion scales with the square of the mean DGD.