The research on beat length of polarization maintaining optical fiber with external pressure

Based on the coupled mode equations and elastic optic effect theory, the relationship between polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) beat length and external pressure was analyzed. Moreover, the beat length variation with different external pressure values F as well as angles θ between the pressure direction and PMF's x-axis was calculated numerically. The results demonstrated that the beat length variation was determined both by F and θ simultaneously. When F was a constant, the beat length was changed periodically in π cycle sinusoidal form with θ variation. Then, the minimum and maximum values of beat length would be obtained when θ were even and odd multiples of π/2, respectively. Meanwhile, the beat length variation was linear with F as θ was fixed. In this situation and with F increasing, if θ ∈ (kπ + π/4, kπ + 3π/4) (k ∈ Z), the beat length would increase linearly; otherwise, the beat length variation would be in the opposite direction while θ ∈ (kπ − π/4, kπ + π/4) (k ∈ Z); however, it remained almost unchanged in the case of θ = kπ ± π/4 (k ∈ Z). Finally, the beat length was measured with different pressure values F and angles θ based on a Sagnac interferometer system, and the results shown a great agreement with the theoretical analysis and simulation.