Practical circular-polarization-maintaining optical fiber

The author describes a new idea for making circular-polarization-maintaining optical fiber with an existing fabrication technique. The method simply requires one to spin at a constant rate a special preform consisting of only one off-axis stress-applying element in addition to the on-axis core. Measurements taken with such a fiber specimen verify the existence of circular eigenmodes, the ease of joining or splicing two fiber segments, the tolerance to macrobending with a small radius, etc. Good agreement exists between the experimental data and the theoretical analysis. Prospective applications are discussed. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.