Collinear mixing of orthogonally polarized waves via polarization hole burning in birefringent Er-doped fiber

We report on experimental observation of transient mixing of two mutually coherent waves of orthogonal polarizations collinearly propagating through birefringent Er-doped fiber. The dynamic grating responsible for this two-wave mixing (TWM) process is formed via effect of polarization hole burning (PHB) and has spatial period equal to the beat length of the fiber birefringence. Experiments were performed at the laser wavelength 1549 nm in 2-m long Er-doped fiber with 2-cm birefringence beat length without optical pumping. We observed that the transient collinear TWM has amplitude and characteristic relaxation time close to those of transient PHB effect measured for linearly polarized light and similar to corresponding characteristics of transient TWM observed for counter-propagating orthogonally polarized waves in the same fiber.