Optical Frequency Domain Distributed Polarization Measurement Technology and Applications (Invited)

Optical frequency domain polarimetry (OFDP) is a distributed fiber polarization measurement technique based on optical frequency domain interferometry principles. It accurately measures the spatial distribution of polarization crosstalk and polarization extinction ratio for polarization maintaining fibers, components and devices, and optical fiber system, thereby achieving performance tests, quality evaluation, defect analysis, and fault diagnosis for high-performance polarization maintaining components. Its advantages include ultra-high polarization crosstalk measurement sensitivity, ultra-large dynamic range, high spatial resolution, long measurement distance, and agile measurement. Thus, it becomes one of the distributed fiber measurement technologies with the best overall performances. This paper reviews the measurement principle of OFDP technology, quantitatively analyzes the measurement accuracy limit of distributed polarization crosstalk. Then, the performance improvement technologies for distributed polarization measurement are summarized. Finally, OFDP's applications for measuring typical high-precision polarization maintaining devices are demonstrated, and the technology challenges and future development directions are discussed.