title: Lifting polarization degeneracy of modes by fiber design: a platform for polarization-insensitive microbend fiber gratings.
abstract: Polarization dependence in microbend gratings is an inherent problem, even in perfectly circular fibers, since antisymmetric modes are almost degenerate linear combinations of four distinct, polarization-sensitive modes. We demonstrate a novel fiber design that lifts polarization degeneracies of the antisymmetric modes to solve this problem. By intentionally exacerbating the polarization splittings, we achieve coupling to only the polarization-insensitive doublet, over wavelength ranges exceeding 100 nm, thus demonstrating a device with practical usable bandwidths. This allows all previous applications envisaged with UV-induced long-period gratings to be realized with the significantly lower-cost microbend technology platform.
authors.affiliation: OFS Laboratories, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974, USA. sidr@ieee.org
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramachandran
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Golowich
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Monberg
authors.forename: F V
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Dimarcello
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fleming
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghalmi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wisk