Orthogonality breaking through few-mode optical fiber

Polarization sensing and imaging through optical fibers is a technological challenge motivated by promising applications for in vivo, in situ polarimetric endoscopy for biomedical diagnosis. Among the recent approaches proposed to solve this issue, the depolarization/dichroism sensing by polarization orthogonality breaking (DSOB) technique was shown to perform remotely through single-mode optical fibers for depolarization/diattenuation measurements. In this article, we investigate the applicability of such a technique in slightly multimode waveguides. Through theoretical modeling and numerical simulations, we evidence the conditions required for the polarization orthogonality to be preserved after propagation in a few-mode fiber, notably in terms of detection geometry of the spatial modes. Original experiments realized in few-mode fibers both in transmission and reflection configurations are also reported and validate the theoretical predictions. These results allow us to analyze the influence of the experimental parameters, such as detection geometry, sample tilt, or fiber length, on orthogonality preservation and on the measurement dynamics of the DSOB technique in slightly multimode waveguides. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America