PMD effect on pulse shapes and power penalty in optical communication systems

We present an analytical expression relating the output state of polarization and the first-order polarization mode dispersion (PMD) vector in terms of the angle of precession of the output state of polarization around the PMD vector. We derive, incorporating for the first time this angle of precession, a general relation to study the effect of first-order PMD on pulses of arbitrary shapes, and expressions for pulse shape, pulse broadening and power penalty taking into account both PMD and chromatic dispersion. Measured experiment results are presented for NRZ, RZ, NRZ-DPSK, and RZ-DPSK modulation formats.