Fiber-optic sensor without polarization-induced signal fading

Problems associated with the polarization-induced signal fading (PSF), produced by the random fluctuation of the polarization states of the two interfering optical waves, are established based on the Jones matrix model of the optical polarization. It is shown that only using Faraday rotating mirrors cannot eliminate the PSF problem. Modifications to have fiber-optic sensor immune to the PSF are suggested and demonstrated experimentally. It is shown that this new configuration passively eliminated PSF. Theoretical analysis and experimental results in support of this statement are presented. The performance of fiber-optic sensor is examined and compared with the conventional fiber-optic sensor. From the results of the experiment, the proposed polarization-immune fiber-optic sensor achieves good and stable visibility. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:1307–1313, 2014