Principal modes in fiber amplifiers

TL;DR

This paper investigates the polarization dynamics in fiber amplifiers, demonstrating that using principal states or modes stabilizes polarization despite temperature variations, which is crucial for fiber optic applications.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of principal states and modes to reduce polarization variations in fiber amplifiers under temperature changes.

Findings

Polarization states vary with temperature in fiber amplifiers.

Principal states and modes significantly stabilize polarization.

Experimental results confirm reduced polarization variation using principal states/modes.

Abstract

The dynamics of the state of polarization in single mode and multimode fiber amplifiers are presented. The experimental results reveal that although the state of polarizations at the output can vary over a large range when changing the temperatures of the fiber amplifiers, the variations are significantly reduced when resorting to the principal states of polarization in single mode fiber amplifiers and principal modes in multimode fiber amplifiers.