Chapter 2
Polarization in Optical Fiber
2.1 Optical Fibers
The phenomenon of total internal reflection, responsible for guiding of light in optical fibers, has been known since 1854 [1]. Although glass fibers were made in the 1920s [2, 3, 4], their use became practical only in the 1950s with the use of a cladding layer. Before 1970, optical fibers were used mainly for medical imaging over short distances [5]. Their use for communication purposes was considered impractical because of high losses (∼1000 dB/km). However, the situation changed drastically in 1970 when the loss of optical fibers was reduced to below 20 dB/km [6]. In 1979, further progress led to a loss of only 0.2 dB/km near the 1.55-μm spectral region [7]. The availability ...
