Polarization maintaining(PM) optical fiber connectors are usually used for special applications, such as optical fiber sensing, interferometry, planar waveguides, coherent optical transmission, and long-distance bidirectional optical transmission systems. To understand polarization-maintaining connectors, we need to know what polarization-maintaining fibers are.
The PM fibers currently on the market basically have the following cross-sectional types:
What is Polarization Maintaining(PM) fiber?
Theoretically, the fiber is a circular core which should not produce birefringence, and the polarization state in such a fiber will not change during transmission. In practice, there is always some external forces or other reasons which makes the fiber uneven or curved, and will cause a small amount of birefringence. When the fiber is subject to any external interference, such as wavelength, bending of the fiber, temperature and other factors, the polarization state of light will become chaotic when transmitted in polarization-maintaining fiber.
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Optical Passive Components 