POLARIZATION CONTROL FOR COHERENT COMMUNICATIONS

Two practical implementations of endless polarization control are described. The first approach uses polarization maintaining fiber transducers, while the second uses an integrated optic lithium niobate device. In order to characterize the lithium niobate device in detail, a technique for analyzing the birefringence as a function of the applied voltages was developed, and the measured performance of devices is presented. Fractional-wave controllers for both static and endless control applications are considered, and design rules for maximum wavelength-window and minimum loss fiber-loop polarization adjusters are given. Endless control using various configurations of the three types of transducers is discussed, and it is shown how apparently different schemes are closely related. © 1990 IEEE