Polarization properties of the flint glass fiber

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Abstract
To realize stable characteristics of a current sensor using the Faraday effect in an optical fiber, it is necessary to prevent the influence of birefringent effect on light passing the fiber, which is caused by photo-elastic effect and/or lack of axial symmetry of its structure. The flint glass fiber manufactured from flint glass with very small photo-elastic constant, which has circular core and satisfies the single ode condition,has been developed to solve this problem. This paper reports results of a study to clarify polarization properties of the fiber and to consider a method for highly stabilizing the polarization. From experiments to investigate the relationship between state of polarization of light inserted to the fiber and that emitted from another end, it was confirmed that the birefringence due to the photo-elastic effect and the lack of symmetry are negligibly small. It also became known that the azimuth angle of polarization of the emitted light depends on the shape of the curve of the fiber. Namely, a rotation of the polarization plane is equal to the amount of line integral of the torsional rate along the curve. A countermeasure is necessary for this phenomenon, because characteristics of the current sensor may be influenced if the flint glass fiber coil is deformed by environmental factors. From a consideration of the mechanism of the phenomenon, it is inferred that the problem can be solved by reciprocating light in the fiber to stabilize the polarization. The effect of this method is confirmed experimentally.