Simple, all-fibre, polarisation-independent optical time-division multiplexer

An all-fibre optical time-division multiplexer based on a Sagnac loop has been developed and theoretically analysed. In addition to the low loss insertion. the simplicity of this setup and the low cost of these devices, the major advantage is that the output pulses have the same fixed power regardless of the input polarisation. The experimental results were found to be in agreement with the theoretical analysis. This device allows us to achieve mechanically stable multiplexing of a pulse generator signal from 10 to 20 GHz.