Fiber-type phase retarder based on photo-induced birefringence of a standard single-mode fiber and its feasibility of realizing polarization-state converters

Abstract

We present a fiber-type phase retarder that is implemented by using a short segment of a single-mode fiber. To induce the phase retardation, we utilize the photo-induced birefringence. Though the photo-induced birefringence was small, it was enough to realize quarter-wave retardation. In our works, by cascading two fiber-type quarter-wave segments in series and rotating one and/or both of them, we could confirm the potential as a polarization-state converter. All birefringence segments were encapsulated in metal tubes and were terminated with fiber ferrules so that we could simultaneously rotate the birefringence axis and increase the connectivity to other devices. The theoretical results are given and are compared with the experimental ones.