Simple Linear Space Formalism for Polarization-Dependent Interferometers: Theory and Application to Phase-Modulated Photonic Links

We outline a formalism for modeling interferometers, such as asymmetric Mach-Zehender interferometers used in both microwave photonic links and modern transmission systems. The formalism permits modeling elements with birefringence and polarization-dependent loss. By introducing a coordinate transfo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of lightwave technology Vol. 32; no. 20; pp. 3668 - 3675
Main Authors Frigo, Nicholas J., Urick, Vincent J., Bucholtz, Frank
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 15.10.2014
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Couplers
Couplings
Interferometers
Optical waveguides
Transforms
Transmission line matrix methods
Vectors
optical polarization
Microwave photonics
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Summary:We outline a formalism for modeling interferometers, such as asymmetric Mach-Zehender interferometers used in both microwave photonic links and modern transmission systems. The formalism permits modeling elements with birefringence and polarization-dependent loss. By introducing a coordinate transformation between the standard "waveguide" view (coupled polarizations and independent waveguides) and the "coupler" view (coupled waveguides with independent polarizations), we reduce modeling to a concatenation of block diagonal operators and coordinate transformations. This connects to, and generalizes, an earlier approach. We illustrate the formalism by calculating the phase shift in a birefringent interferometer suffering differential normal mode losses in the couplers. Such phase shifts can be a significant source of even-order distortion in phase-modulated links employing an interferometer-based receiver.
ISSN:0733-8724
1558-2213
DOI:10.1109/JLT.2014.2336173