title: Distributed characterization of bending effects on the birefringence of single-mode optical fibers.
abstract: The effects of bending on randomly birefringent, single-mode optical fibers have been analyzed by means of polarization-sensitive optical frequency domain reflectometry. This distributed, pointwise characterization has been performed on ad hoc drawn spun fibers and on a ribbon cable. Experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical predictions and confirm the effectiveness of reflectometry as a means to characterize polarization properties of optical fibers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Via G. Gradenigo 6/B, 35131 Padova, Italy. luca.palmieri@dei.unipd.it
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palmieri
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galtarossa
authors.forename: Tommy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Geisler