title: Polarization changes of partially coherent pulses propagating in optical fibers.
abstract: We consider polarization changes of partially coherent pulses propagating through birefringent dispersive fibers in the linear regime. We show that the evolution of the degree of polarization across such pulses is determined not only by the coherence properties of the pulse in the source plane, but also by the spatial walk-off introduced by the group-velocity mismatch between the two polarization components. The interplay between these two factors determines the asymptotic value of the degree of polarization of an initially unpolarized statistical pulse. We compare our results with previously discussed coherence-induced polarization changes of partially coherent beams propagating in free space.
authors.affiliation: Dalhousie University, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2X4, Canada. w.huang@dal.ca
authors.forename: Weihong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Sergey A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ponomarenko
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cada
authors.forename: Govind P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Agrawal