Wspomagana komputerowo ocena własności polaryzacyjnych elementów światłowodowych

W artykule przedstawiono metodologię i wyniki pomiarów macierzy Muellera wybranych włókien światłowodowych zrealizowanych z wykorzystaniem autorskiego, specjalistycznego oprogramowania sterującego. Oprogramowanie to umożliwia zdalny i szybki pomiar oraz automatyczne wyznaczenie interesujących wielkości fizycznych opisujących badane włókna. Pomiar macierzy Muellera przeprowadzano w konfiguracji układowej: źródło światła, specjalizowany światłowodowy generator stanu polaryzacji, badane włókno oraz polarymetr z wejściem światłowodowym.

The rapid development of telecommunication and sensor technology requires more comprehensive evaluation of the optical properties of optical components used. At present it seems that in both groups of applications, obtaining information about the polarization properties of fiber-optic components used in an optical path plays an increasing role. This leads to the need for ever more sophisticated measurement techniques in which the key issue is to use a computer performing functions of control, reading and processing data. In this paper a methodology and experimental results of Mueller matrices measurements of optical fibres based on specially designed software are presented. The successive sections present: the theoretical basis of the measurement method, the measurement system, description of the library I/O - VISA and the measurement results. The developed software allows for remote and fast measurements as well as control of all devices in the measurement system. A Mueller matrix was measured based on the following configuration: a laser light source, an optical fibre polarization generator, a tested optical fibre and a polarimeter with an optical fibre adapter (Fig. 1). The presented preliminary results are satisfactory and give a very good perspective for building a measurement system that will allow for automatic characterization of not only the polarization properties of optical fibers, but also passive components made based on them. The described measurement system will be used as a base for developing the system enabling full characterization of fiber optic components with special reference to their polarizing properties.